..."Israel has a democratically elected government and like every other democratically elected government in the world, Israel should carry out its own investigation," said Kemp.

"I believe Israel should do it rapidly and comprehensively and should be completely up front if it has made mistakes - mistakes should be admitted by Israel, but I don't think it should be subjected to an independent inquiry any more than other Western countries are.

"Look at what appears to have been a very serious military error made by the German army in Northern Afghanistan last year when something like 50-150 civilians were killed in an air strike," he said.

"Where was the independent inquiry about that? Where were the calls for an independent inquiry about that? Why is it that Israel is subjected to that kind of call when other democratic countries aren't?"...