Showing posts with label Goldstone Report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goldstone Report. Show all posts

Friday, February 5, 2010

Goldstone co-author: The court of world opinion is determined to see the report prevail


Goldstone co-author: The court of world opinion is determined to see the report prevail
by Philip Weiss


Hanan Chehata of Middle East Monitor goes to Dublin to interview Desmond Travers, the retired Irish colonel who was one of the authors of the Goldstone Report. The money:
The best statement I can make about that is the one that Richard Goldstone made when an American spokesperson for the State Department said it was a very biased, flawed report and he said to them by way of response, “Show us where the bias is and where the flaw is and we’ll do our best to correct it.” That invitation stands. I have subsequently issued the same invitation in a Dutch newspaper and elsewhere; so far, no substantive critique of the report has been received.





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Friday, January 29, 2010

ISRAEL: WHEN THE WORLD IS TALKING GOLDSTONE, WE TALK HOLOCAUST




Israel has once again displayed an arrogance that not even a Jewish mother could love. Basically, ‘nothing that happens today really matters….. we suffered in the past and that’s what counts’.
Cashing in on the Holocaust was always a big business….. but there are limits. Israel seems to disagree as can be seen in the following…..
Wednesday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and an Israeli public relations drive like this hasn’t been seen for ages. The timing of the unusual effort – never have so many ministers deployed across the globe – is not coincidental: When the world is talking Goldstone, we talk Holocaust, as if out to blur the impression. When the world talks occupation, we’ll talk Iran as if we wanted them to forget.
A thousand speeches against anti-Semitism will not extinguish the flames ignited by Operation Cast Lead, flames that threaten not only Israel but the entire Jewish world. As long as Gaza is under blockade and Israel sinks into its institutionalized xenophobia, Holocaust speeches will remain hollow. As long as evil is rampant here at home, neither the world nor we will be able to accept our preaching to others, even if they deserve it.
The above is taken from Gideon Levy’s report in todays HaAretz….
Holocaust remembrance is a boon for Israeli propaganda


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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Goldstone Report on the Israeli incursion into Gaza


Israel claims self-defense, but Gaza incursion was a war crime.

Palm Beach County Democratic officials ignored overwhelming evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza by disinviting Rep. Dennis Kucinich as their keynote Truman-Kennedy-Johnson Dinner speaker.

Efforts to malign the report of Justice Richard Goldstone into Israeli and Hamas war crimes last winter are irresponsible and highlight the growing sense of Israeli exceptionalism - international law applies to others but not to Israel. The 344-36 House vote last month condemning the Goldstone Report, which encourages Israel and Hamas to conduct "credible" independent investigations of war crimes, may help Israeli leaders avoid prosecution in the short term. But American backing for Israeli lawlessness ­- and the devastating siege of Gaza - does American interests in the world no good.

Palm Beach County defenders of Israel's Gaza onslaught cite self-defense. The principle underlies Israel's argument for the war and is central to the American rejection of Goldstone. Absent self-defense, political and military officials in Israel are subject to charges that go beyond those in the Goldstone Report, including the crime of war of aggression. However, the self-defense claim is inconsistent with both fact and law.

Within weeks of the Egyptian-brokered June 2008 cease-fire agreement, Hamas rocket fire halted. According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the cease-fire was so successful that it brought "normal life" and "calm" back to Israeli towns near Gaza. The ministry even lauded Hamas in July 2008: "On several occasions, Hamas members have arrested Fatah operatives who were involved in firing at Israel and confiscated their arms."

According to The New York Times, calm prevailed until Israeli forces broke the cease-fire agreement on Nov. 4, 2008. While the world's gaze turned that day to a historic American election, Israel attacked Gaza, killing six Hamas members and catapulting the region into a renewed wave of violent hostilities. Hamas rocket fire followed.

Two weeks later, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak admitted that "the recent waves of rocket attacks are a result of our operations, which have resulted in the killing of 20 Hamas gunmen." Still, Hamas offered to reinstate and extend the cease-fire on Dec. 23. Instead, Israel four days later launched a gruesome aerial offensive against Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni even boasted that Israel was "going wild - and this is a good thing."

Israeli forces targeted schools, hospitals, factories, the only flour mill in Gaza, an egg farm, thousands of private homes, government buildings and Palestinian civilians. The Goldstone Report concluded, "While the Israeli government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right to self-defense, the mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole."

Rep. Kucinich may be persona non grata in Palm Beach County, but international law, human rights, and common decency are on his side. These are the very principles that usually inspire Palm Beach County Democrats when Israel isn't involved.

Source: The Institute for Middle East Understanding

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Friday, November 6, 2009

ANALYSIS / U.S. using Goldstone report to punish Netanyahu


Operation Cast Lead in Gaza was perceived in Israel as a shining victory. Rocket fire from Gaza was brought to a halt almost completely. The Israel Defense Forces emerged from its failure during the Second Lebanon War and deployed ground forces with few casualties. "The world" let the operation continue and did not impose a cease-fire. A wonderful war.

Ten months later, it seems the victory was a Pyrrhic one. Israel did not realize that the rules have changed with Barack Obama's election as U.S. president. Prime minister Ehud Olmert timed Cast Lead to take place during the twilight period between the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations, and rightly assumed that the incumbent, George W. Bush, would fully back Israel. However, in contrast to the Lebanon war of 2006, which ended with a cease-fire, the Gaza campaign continues being fought - in the diplomatic arena and in public opinion - and Israel must cope with its consequences in a less-friendly Obama era.

During the first, military round, Israel benefited from the decisive superiority of its firepower. However the Palestinians moved the war's current round to an arena more comfortable for them, and are benefiting from their advantage in UN institutions and in public opinion. The calls to boycott Israel are getting louder. Turkey is shirking off its strategic alliance with Israel and is presenting IDF soldiers as horrible murderers of children. Hamas is gradually winning recognition as a legitimate player, as it continues to amass a stock of rockets without hindrance. Meanwhile Israel's leaders are busy defending the country against the United Nations' Goldstone report (that accuses Israel and Hamas of perpetrating war crimes), and some even have to worry now about being the object of arrest warrants in Europe.

Hands are tied

Even if the legal process that Goldstone initiated ends up being halted, and Israel is not put in the dock in The Hague, its hands have been tied. The world, led by Obama, will not let it initiate a Cast Lead II operation. Certainly not when a right-wing government is in power in Jerusalem led by Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the world loves to hate. Netanyahu's clumsy attempt, in his Knesset speech this week, to link the war in Gaza to opposition leader Tzipi Livni did not really succeed. He is in power and the world considers him responsible. The Americans and the Europeans are using the Goldstone report to punish Netanyahu for his refusal to freeze the settlements.

The same thing happened to the Palestinians between the two intifadas. When they hurled stones during the first intifada (1987-1993) and the confrontation was in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, the world cheered them on and forced Israel to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization and to let its leader Yasser Arafat establish his autonomy in the territories. The Palestinian violence at that time was perceived as appropriate resistance to occupation. During the second intifada, the Palestinians resorted to suicide attacks in Israeli cities. They succeeded in killing many more Israelis, but they lost in the diplomatic arena, especially after the September 11 attacks in the United States, when the rules changed. The world was fed up with terror attacks and it allowed then-prime minister Ariel Sharon to reoccupy the West Bank, lock Arafat in a cage (his headquarters in Ramallah) and eventually unload Gaza without a peace arrangement.

Operation Cast Lead was the most planned operation in the annals of Israel's wars. Its organizers filled out all the forms and checked off on all the procedural changes that had been recommended by the Winograd Committee after its investigation of the shortcomings of the Second Lebanon War. The campaign's goals were reasonable. The scenarios were rehearsed. The reservists were trained. Jurists anticipated the legality of every target and operational plan. The soldiers were properly outfitted with food, water and protective equipment. The local authorities in the Israeli rear functioned as they should have. The media obeyed. In short, the government and the IDF prepared exceptionally well for a Third Lebanon War. They only forgot that the conditions on the Palestinian front are different than in Lebanon.

Not everybody shared the euphoria. The defense minister, Ehud Barak, wanted to halt Cast Lead after two or three days, but was overruled by Olmert who wanted to keep the campaign going, and then going further. Columnists and commentators warned of Gaza becoming a quagmire.

And most interesting: The Winograd Committee anticipated the lurking legal danger to Israel, and in its final report had warned of "far-reaching consequences" resulting from the widening gap between the rules of warfare and the reality of fighting terror launched from civilian surroundings. The committee recommended pulling the legal experts out of the operation rooms, increasing and highlighting investigation of irregular activities, and working with friendly countries to amend the rules of warfare, a recommendation that is easy to make but difficult to implement. The Winograd report did not warn against going into the next war before the rules of warfare are changed. The legal recommendations, drafted with restraint out of fear they would be used for anti-Israeli propaganda, were lost in the sea of piquant items in the report.

Upon returning to power, Netanyahu hoped to leave the Palestinian issue on the side and focus on the Iranian threat and on economic reforms. Now his government will have to cope with the consequences of Cast Lead and do so under less than ideal conditions, heavy international pressure and fear of arrest warrants and charge sheets.

Source: Haaretz News Jerusalem
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Thursday, November 5, 2009

NEW BREED OF HOLOCAUST DENIER



Having burned out the pejorative phrase “anti-Semite” though overuse and endless misapplication, Israel’s defenders of late have been resorting to their last and most powerful rhetorical weapon of mass distraction, “Holocaust Denier”, to silence critics or at the very least to deprive them of an objective audience ready to give the critic a fair hearing.

“Holocaust Denier” is being hurled hither and yon, and the reality is that hardly anybody being labeled a “holocaust denier” denies anything. They just want to ask a few specific questions about specific historical events, or simply defend the right of all people in this post “Saddam has nookular bombs” era to re-examine everything we have ever been taught by the state-operated schools and media. Nobody is denying that war crimes took place. But that there have been hoaxes and false claims made in the aftermath of WW2 is beyond question.

However, ’sauce for the goose’ etc. and I have decided that from here on out, I will identify all defenders of Israel’s actions in Palestine and all those who are fighting to block the bringing of war crimes charges against Israel for Operation CAST LEAD as “Goldstone Deniers”.

I feel that this is perfectly appropriate because the “Holocaust Denier” label is used to claim that the denier is trying to conceal NAZI Germany’s atrocities. Therefore, those who are trying to conceal Israel’s atrocities should be accorded the same treatment. After all, they are indeed trying to deny the atrocities which took place inside Palestine.

So, that is it. They are all “Goldstone Deniers” from here on out!

Source: Desert Peace

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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

ISRAEL MUST BE SO PROUD OF AMERICA


The United States of Israel has just voted to condemn the goldstone report. With 344 in favor to 36 opposed, with 22 chicken shits who voted "absent" to support murder, slaughter, collective punishment, internment and ALL forms of International Law breaking. Israel has spent it's money well inside America. All those years of bribes, billions in campaign contributions and arm twisting has paid off big time for Israel. And to think, I thought the American slaves were freed, guess not.

Today America has done its masters bidding and voted to condemn the Goldstone Report, and in doing so sends a very CLEAR message to the Arab and Muslim world. That message says that equality under the law does not exist for you, legal avenues are shutdown for you, the law means nothing, it doesn't apply to you. And to think Obama wants to "extend the hand of friendship" to the Muslim world? When in fact his message has been heard loud and clear, choose violence and resistance over the law....THAT is America's message.
As expected, the House approved Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s (R-Fla.) resolution condemning South African judge Richard Goldstone’s inquiry for the United Nations into war crimes committed last year in Gaza by Israel and Hamas. The lopsided final vote was 344 in favor to 36 opposed, with 22 “present” votes. source
Although this is a non-binding resolution, Obama has never shown any backbone since he's been in office, hence I don't expect him to go against what the Zionist owned politicians voted for today.

Source: Irish4palestine

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Dennis Kucinich: Almost As Serious As Committing War Crimes Is Covering Up War Crimes!



Source: Dandelion Salad


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Sunday, November 1, 2009

Help Jewish Voice For Peace Fight efforts to kill the UN Goldstone Gaza report

Fight efforts to kill the UN Goldstone Gaza report

The continued attacks on the Goldstone Report prevent accountability for the civilian victims before, during and after the attack on Gaza -- both Palestinians and Israelis -- and shred the rule of law. That's why we are asking you to say: I support the Goldstone Report. Once you sign, we'll tell you how to easily and quickly lobby Congress and your UN Ambassador in the next few days.


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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

URGENT~STOP AMERICA FROM KILLING GOLDSTONE REPROT


Emergency! Congress Debates Burying the Goldstone Report!
by Max Ajl - Coalition to organize The Gaza Freedom March

The Gaza Freedom March, October 27, 2009
SUBJECT: TELL CONGRESS TO RESPECT US AND INTERNATIONAL LAW!

Emergency – Call Congress Now

The US Congress is a considering a bipartisan resolution which would officially reject the findings of Judge Goldstone’s report on the Gaza war and call on President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to use the US veto to prevent a vote on the report in the United Nations Security Council. A vote on the bill, House Resolution 867, is expected by this coming weekend.
It is urgent that you call both your Senators and your Congressperson today and tell them to vote against this outrageous bill. You can read the bill here. It ignores the conclusions of the Goldstone Report and simply parrots Israeli government denial.

Judge Goldstone has challenged the US to substantiate its claim that his report is "flawed." President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have made no response. The carefully researched and documented report deserves a response, not a veto. The people of Gaza, who were brutally attacked, deserve a hearing. What message are we sending to the rest of the world when we grant Israel complete impunity?

This legislation has very important implications beyond the war crimes committed in Gaza. Israel has responded to the report by demanding the Western powers rewrite international and US law, warning that acceptance of the Goldstone report will mean that the US’ military campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be subject to similar scrutiny. (Judge Goldstone has drawn a distinction – stating that his report finds that Israel deliberately targeted civilians). This legislation also ignores serious allegations that Israel has violated the US Arms Export Control Act.

Let Congress know that such legislation is unacceptable. It is not in the US interest to disregard war crimes. It is not in the US interest to rewrite international law. It is not possible to grant Israel impunity while demanding that other nations respect human rights.

Call NOW! LINK HERE TO CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES OR CALL THE CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD at the numbers below.

US House of Representatives (202) 225-3121 or http://www.house.gov/
US Senate (202) 224-3121 or http://www.senate.gov/
Thank you for your support.
Coalition to organize The Gaza Freedom March

Source: Irish4Palestine
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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Criminals shouldn’t be allowed to investigate themselves




22_child-victims-gaza0109_300_0.jpg

In its rabid efforts to whitewash the Goldstone report, Israel is likely to carry out another disingenuous probe into its genocidal onslaught against the Gaza Strip nearly ten months ago.

The report, compiled by South African judge Richard Goldstone, himself a Jew, accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians.

As many as 1400 Palestinians, mostly non-combatants including more than 330 children, were killed during the 22-day campaign which some historians and intellectuals compared to the allied saturation bombing of the German city of Dresden at the close of the Second World War.

Israel has already conducted a number of “investigations” into the Gaza blitzkrieg which exonerated the Israeli army of any wrongdoing.

However, nearly everyone familiar with patterns of Israeli behavior realizes that investigations by Israel into crimes committed by Israel didn’t have an iota of credibility.

In the final analysis, criminals, especially war criminals, are unlikely to indict themselves by admitting guilt.

Hence, it is a foregone conclusion that any new probe by Israel of its pornographic crimes in Gaza would be a repetition of past investigations.

Moreover, an inquiry by the Israeli army, or the Israeli justice system, into the Gaza crimes would be very much like a probe by the Gestapo into crimes perpetrated by the Wehrmacht or SS forces.

The analogy is justified to a great extent. After all, the entire Israeli political and military class consists of nefarious war criminals and Nazi-like racists who advocate genocide and mass murder.

In fact, it is very difficult for any Israeli Jew to reach a high position in either the military or political hierarchies if he doesn’t have his hands fully stained with Palestinian blood.

This explains the morbid infatuation of the bulk of the Israeli Jewish public with Israeli war criminals. The more these war criminals excel in blood-letting, the more respect and admiration they receive from society.

For example, Israel elected Ariel Sharon, the certified war criminal twice as Prime Minster.

The “hero” of many genocidal massacres, such as the 1982- Sabra and Shatilla carnage, was often given the esteemed epithet of “Melich Yisrael” or “King of Israel.”

In 1998, Ehud Barak, the current Israeli defense minister who oversaw the genocidal campaign against the Gaza Strip, sought during his election campaign to impress voters by giving a graphic description of how he assassinated three Palestinian leaders in Beirut several years earlier.

In short, we are talking about a breed of war criminals and murderous thugs who really differ very little from Nazi leaders and commanders. After all, both practiced the “no-holds-barred doctrine.” The Nazis implemented that doctrine in Europe, and the Zionists in Palestine and Lebanon .

Apart from that, there is an entire history of Zionist whitewashing of Israeli crimes which shows that Israel itself is a huge crime against humanity.

When the massacre of Dir Yasin was carried out, an initial Israeli police report claimed that “an Arab was injured.” Similarly, an Israeli probe into the Kfar Qassem massacre in the mid 1950s blamed the victims for “violating the curfew.”

This pattern of blaming the victims continues to this day. A few weeks ago, an Israeli court acquitted Jewish terrorist settlers who ganged up on elderly Palestinian peasants and shepherds in the southern Hebron hills, beating them savagely, using clubs and other objects.

The perpetrators, who had been caught on camera attacking the helpless Palestinians, were exonerated of any wrong doing.

Well, perhaps the Jewish judge is insisting that all Palestinians ought to have special cameras that see through the masks worn by Jewish settlers when attacking their Palestinian victims.

There is no doubt that Israel has been embarrassed by the Goldstone report. This explains the perplexity of Israeli leaders’ and spokespersons’ behavior.

This week, Israeli Prime Minister made two remarks which underscored this pattern of psychotic behavior.

First, he demanded that the world stop relying on and buying oil from Muslim countries, saying that western dependence on oil was encouraging “terror.” Well, one would have to be a psychiatrist to analyze the mental sickness of a leader who can’t bring himself to see reality as it is.

Second, Netanyahu reportedly has authorized an inter-ministerial committee to press the international community to amend the laws of war, conceivably in order to allow the Israeli army to commit genocide with impunity.

One Israeli writer argued that “if the Americans and Russians and Chinese can commit war crimes with impunity, why can’t Israel do the same.”

In other words, what Israeli leaders are effectively saying is that the peoples of the world ought to recognize “Jewish Nazism” as a legitimate fact of life. What else would explain the offensive demands of amending the laws of war to suit Israel’s criminal behavior?

This means that it is only a matter of time before another Israeli official, a minister, or army general, or even a Prime Minister, will argue that since Nazi Germany carried out a holocaust against Jews, Jews are perfectly justified in carrying out a holocaust against the Palestinians.!

In another related feat reflecting Israeli frustration over the Goldstone report, the Israeli government is now studying the possibility of suing Hamas for “terror and war crimes” against Israel.

Well, it seems that the depravity and brutal ugliness of Zionist leaders have no limits. True, Hamas, like any other national liberation movement, is not faultless. However, whatever Hamas and other Palestinian factions have done in the context of their legitimate resistance against the Nazi-like Israeli occupation ought to be considered in the context of decades of harsh repression meted out by Israel to the Palestinian people.

After all, Israel stole Palestine from its rightful owners, demolished their homes, destroyed their farms, murdered untold thousands of civilians in numerous grisly massacres, and expelled the bulk of the Palestinians from their ancestral homeland to the four corners of the world.

I know that Israeli criminality against the Palestinian people don’t always justify certain acts of violence and terror by the victims. However, there is no doubt that terror, repression and oppression, which transcends reality, always makes violence inevitable. In brief, those to whom evil is done do evil in return.

Hence, it is morally axiomatic that violence carried out by people defending themselves, their country and their honor and dignity against an overwhelming onslaught by foreign invaders shouldn’t be equated with the violence and terror of their tormentors and gravediggers.

Indeed, if a foreign colonialist occupation is an act of rape, and it undoubtedly is, then a rape victim’s resistance, even if it involves violence, shouldn’t be placed on the same moral footing with the violence and aggression of the attacker.

Otherwise, every person defending himself against oppression and assault ought to be criminalized.

True, one is always sorry for the death of innocent people, irrespective of their race and faith.

However, Israel must bear full responsibility for forcing the Palestinians to choose between national demise and violent struggle for freedom and justice.

Source: Desert Peace

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