ISRAEL REJECTS INEPENDENT GAZA WAR INQUIRY

       Israel yesterday rejected UN calls to open an independent inquiry into its conduct in last winter's Gaza Strip war and said it would launch a diplomatic offensive to block any attempt to bring its soldiers before an international war crimes tribunal.
       An independent investigation into the war was a key recommendation of an explosive UN report that accused the Jewish state of war rimes and possible crimes against humanity.
       The report, released on Tuesday by UN-appointed investigatiors, said Israel used disproportionate firepower and sisregarded the likelihood of civilian deaths in the offensive, which killed hundrds of non-comatants and caused widespread damage to Gaza.
       It said that if Israel doesn't allow an independent investigation, the case should be refereed to international war crimes prosecutors.
       The report provoked a furore in Israel, whose Foreign Ministry said it was "appalled and disappointed". Radio stations deveoted heavy chaunks of airtime to interviews with outraged officials and critical legal experts. "Clasic Anti-Semitism," blared the headline of an opinion piece in the Israel Hayom daily.
       Israeli officials refused to cooperate with the five-month investigation, saying it was ordered by a UN body with a clear anti-Israeli bias.
       Government spokesman Mark REgev said Israel would not heed the call for an independent investigation and noted that army probes can be a ppealed in court.
       The UN team, headed by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, concluded that both Israel and Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
       Israel launched the three-week war in late December to quash Palestinian militants in Gaza who has bombarded southern Israel for years with rocket and mortar fire.
       Israeli President Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace prize laureate, said the Goldstone report "makes a mockery of history".
       Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel would take action to protect its soldiers and commanders from prosecution abroad and denounced the suggestion of an ICC jurisdiction.
       But even without legal action, the UN report could damage Israel's public image, with people linking the state of Israel and war crimes.
       Israel says the UN Human Rights Council that ordered the probe is biased by its 47-nation membership, dominated by Arab and developing nations.