My mission - and motivation

[bemildred]

Various Goldstone related stuff, starting with Goldstone in his own words.

Five weeks after the release of the Report of the Fact Finding Mission on Gaza, there has been no attempt by any of its critics to come to grips with its substance. It has been fulsomely approved by those whose interests it is thought to serve and rejected by those of the opposite view. Those who attack it do so too often by making personal attacks on its authors' motives and those who approve it rely on its authors' reputations.

Israeli government spokesmen and those who support them have attacked it in the harshest terms and, in particular my participation, in a most personal and hurtful way. The time has now come for more sober reflection on what the report means and appropriate Israeli reactions to it.

I begin with my own motivation, as a Jew who has supported Israel and its people all my life, for having agreed to head the Gaza mission. Over the past 20 years, I have investigated serious violations of international law in my own country, South Africa, in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda and the alleged fraud and theft by governments and political leaders in a number of countries in connection with the United Nations Iraq Oil for Food program. In all of these, allegations reached the highest political echelons. In every instance, I spoke out strongly in favor of full investigations and, where appropriate, criminal prosecutions. I have spoken out over the years on behalf of the International Bar Association against human rights violations in many countries, including Sri Lanka, China, Russia, Iran, Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

I would have been acting against those principles and my own convictions and conscience if I had refused a request from the United Nations to investigate serious allegations of war crimes against both Israel and Hamas in the context of Operation Cast Lead.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1255694838474&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[bemildred]

1. Just what did Goldstone expect?

It is difficult to think of a figure of the international stature and reputation of Richard Goldstone, with his rich experience as an international criminal prosecutor and investigator of human rights situations, as being naive or unrealistic. It is all the more difficult therefore, to fathom the curious justifications that he proffers for the very one-sided and critical report issued in his name by the United Nations.

He criticizes Israel's decision not to cooperate with his Fact-Finding Mission, but naively ignores the very one-sided and politically hostile mandate of the mission as set out by the United Nations Human Rights Council, that determined in advance that Israel had committed war crimes. Any concession towards impartiality that he claims to have received from the president of the HRC never materialized into a change in the council's mandate, which remained rabidly one-sided and politically loaded.

Similarly he strangely ignores the fact that one of the senior members of his mission - Prof. Christine Chinkin - had, during the course of the fighting in Gaza, already voiced her opinion in the most public manner through the British media, accusing Israel of war crimes.

In such circumstances, how, in all logic, could any reasonable observer familiar with the United Nations and its inquiry procedures expect Israel to cooperate with such a politically prejudiced and gravely flawed inquiry? In doing so, Israel would have been perceived to have accepted the substantive elements of the Human Rights Council's initial criticism.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1255694838520&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[bemildred]

2. The Goldstone Mission vs. The Peace Process

For eight years, while Hamas indiscriminately shelled Israeli civilians with rockets provided by its patrons in Iran, the UN stood silent. Only when Israel, after years of restraint, moved to put an end to the terror, did the Human Rights Council act - by condemning Israel. This one-sided body passed a one-sided resolution calling for a one-sided investigation. Last month, the results of this "investigation" were presented by Justice Richard Goldstone to the HRC. Yet instead of dealing responsibly with the report, HRC members engaged in yet another anti-Israel travesty, which even Goldstone acknowledged as one-sided.

There have been dozens of international inquiries into events in the Gaza operation, and Israel has cooperated fully with almost all of them, including one undertaken by the UN Secretary General. Only in those instances where it was clear beyond any doubt that an inquiry was motivated by a political agenda - and not concern for human rights - did Israel decide not to cooperate. Unfortunately the HRC's Fact-Finding Mission was one of these.

Sadly, what was clear to Israel from the outset, has only now become clear to Goldstone. He is now trying to distance himself from the results of his own handiwork.

Last Friday he discussed his disappointment with the action taken by the HRC, telling the Swiss daily Le Temps: "This draft resolution saddens me as it includes only allegations against Israel, there is not a single phrase condemning Hamas."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1255694848280&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[bemildred]

3. Finish it now

In the early 1990s, when Judge Richard Goldstone headed a commission of inquiry on the rising violence in South Africa toward the end of apartheid, he garnered the same kind of compliments from the Afrikaners as he has been getting from Israel over the last few weeks. But the "Jew boy" wasn't the problem then, and he isn't the problem now. And PR isn't the solution. Take a look in the mirror; it's not Goldstone, it's us. We're the problem as well as the solution.

Israel is being pushed to the side of the world stage and will yet find itself in the same position South Africa was during the final years of the right-wing "crocodile," P.W. Botha, a conservative ideologue. The Goldstone report is a cruel but accurate image of Israel the leper as seen by the "anti-Semitic" Goldstone and Israel's good friends around the world, who are having a hard time continuing to defend the country.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was fighting for the rights of black people in the United States, it didn't bother anyone that South Africa had benches for white people only. But then the weather changed, winter turned to spring and racism became a crime once more, first in the United States and then around the world. That's exactly what's happening in Israel now. George W. Bush retired to his ranch and America has gotten tired of the settlers. Everyone understands what every decent and patriotic Israeli also realizes: Israel won't be in Hebron or Ofra when it celebrates its 70th anniversary. So why not be done with it before then? When will be the appropriate time? When Ankara recalls its ambassador? When Vice Premier Moshe Ya'alon is arrested in London? When the Security Council imposes sanctions? When Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi start saying behind our backs the same things the Swedes and Norwegians say about us to our faces?

We could be total suckers and not be done with it until then, or we could decide now, the way David Ben-Gurion took action at 4 P.M. one Friday afternoon: mightily, and in thrall to a Zionist vision. Complete the ugly, injurious fence that causes injustice but saves lives and turn it into Israel's internationally recognized border. Patriotic Israel realizes that the Palestinians must not beat us in the War of Independence and become the majority here, just as Ben-Gurion understood in 1948 when he made his decision. So the Arabs oppose dividing the land under reasonable conditions and want to talk until they form the majority here? Let them oppose. The world agrees, and we act.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1121992.html

[bemildred]

4. Cabinet likely to discuss probing Goldstone Gaza Report findings

The security-diplomatic cabinet is likely to discuss on Tuesday whether Israel should establish a commission of inquiry into the findings of a damning United Nations report on the Gaza war.

The cabinet will consider the move at a special meeting on the document, in the wake of its endorsement by the UN Human Rights Council last week.

Both the Justice Ministry and Foreign Ministry support establishing such an inquiry, holding that it would aid Israel in combating the report.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, for his part, does not rule out such a probe - but does not want it to harm the standing of Israel's existing investigative bodies and the Israel Defense Forces' own prosecutors.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1122103.html

[bemildred]

5. On the "harshness" of the Goldstone report - Amanda Mueller

I find this interesting mainly because I remember in the runup to OCL various political hacks like E. Barak going on about how they were going to take "harsh" measures in Gaza, so I don't see how "harsh" is necessarily a bad thing.

Disappointment is the only word that can be used to describe the emotions the United States invoked with their passive stand on the Goldstone Report. The disappointment is particularly directed towards President Barak Obama because he was elected on a platform of change. However, the favoritism still shown towards Israel and its misdeeds continues, following the Bush Administration's look-the-other-way mantra when dealing with Israel.

The Unites States stated that the Goldstone report, written by Zionist and South African Judge Richard Goldstone, was “harsh” and biased against Israel. Operation Cast Lead was harsh. During military operations, over 1,400 Palestinians were killed, the majority being civilians. Over 300 of those civilians were children. Homes, buildings and families were destroyed. Current and former soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces have come out and spoken against their actions during Operation Cast Lead, an operation that led Israel to ban foreign media from reporting.

The Goldstone Report pointed out the violations of international law by Hamas and other armed groups, citing the firing of hundreds of Qassam and Grad rockets into Israeli civilian territory and firing such weapons from densely populated civilian areas in Gaza constitute war crimes. Also mentioned is the imprisoning of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is held captive by Hamas' military arm, the Al-Qassam Brigades.

The Goldstone Report documents Israel's use of firing white phosphorus munitions into civilian territories, shooting civilian targets waving white flags, destroying civilian property, and targeting civilians with drone-led missiles. Also in the Goldstone report are details of excessive force, detainment and harassment used by the Israeli military and their various branched towards civilians in the West Bank.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=233295

[bemildred]

6. Kadima MK calls for Cast Lead probe

After nearly an entire week during which coalition and opposition MKs unified against the Goldstone Commission Report, cracks began to show on Sunday as lawmakers began sparring over how best to react.

MK Nachman Shai (Kadima) accused the government of backing Israel into a "dead end" and called on the Netanyahu administration to establish a judicial investigative committee into Operation Cast Lead.

"The stronger the diplomatic offensive against Israel becomes," the more necessary it is for "the government of Israel to make a brave decision," the Kadima legislator and former IDF spokesman said in a statement.

"The time has come to put an end to the government's misgivings concerning the Goldstone Report and to conduct a judicial inquiry into Operation Cast Lead," he added.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1255694839599&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[bemildred]

7. OK, I'm done. nt

[shira]

8. Goldstone's very first sentence in this article is a flat-out lie, observe the 1st comment at JPost

"1. Goldstone, you are simply a liar. Your first sentence here is an obscene lie.
Read online the criticisms of Goldstone's report on the websites of CAMERA, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, & of NGO Monitor. Goldstone's statement that "there has been no attempt by any of critics to come to grips with its substance" is just a contemptible lie. The above sites will show you that Goldstone ignored or rejected clear evidence of Hamas's culpability, & of the IDF's innocence, in many key charges Goldstone makes against the IDF. Also "The Operatiion in Gaza - Factual and Legal Aspects", Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, shows him a liar"

The Goldstone supersite, home of substantive criticism on everything related to the Goldstone Report...
http://www.goldstonereport.org/

[bemildred]

9. "Goldstone, you are simply a liar. Your first sentence here is an obscene lie."

Well, you just can't get much more "substantive" than that.

[shira]

10. LOL.... those articles cited from CAMERA, NGO-M, the MFA, etc.. are all substance

do you really not believe Goldstone lied in the very first sentence of the OP?

[bemildred]

11. Look, if you want to proceed in this way, it is fine with me. nt

[shira]

12. proceed in what way? what do you think of Goldstone's 1st sentence in the OP?

is Goldstone some untouchable saint who should be immune to legitimate criticism?

[bemildred]

13. In the way you are proceeding. nt

[shira]

14. you know very well his first sentence is an outright lie....so why pretend it's not?

[shira]

18. and here's another outright lie by Goldstone from the OP

Those who feel that our report failed to give adequate attention to specific incidents or issues should be asking the Israeli government why it failed to argue its cause.

At least 2 Israelis were in constant contact with Goldstone throughout the process feeding Goldstone information....
http://www.2nd-thoughts.org/id235.html
http://www.goldstonereport.org/controversies/incitementdehumanization/132-elihu-richter-crimes-against-humanity-brief-to-goldstone-30609

The MFA also wrote up a response before September 15...
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Hamas+war+against+Israel/Initial-response-goldstone-report-24-Sep-2009.htm

Goldstone ignored all of it.

Just as he's still ignoring it and refusing to retract or amend his report (ethics demand that any honest Judge would make the necessary corrections either during or after such a commission).

It's therefore yet another disingenuous, outright lie for Goldstone to claim that he couldn't give adequate attention to specific incidents or issues.

[azurnoir]

21. None of your links are actually factual now are they?

Most are second hand opinion from groups or individuals that were not in Gaza, they ignore the very simple fact that that Israeli government refused to co-operate with the investigation and hen Israel whines endlessly about its so called evidence not being taken seriously, if Israel wanted its "data" and opinion taken into evidence it should then have cooperated its that simple-like it or not

[shira]

23. this is evidence freely available to everyone....why ignore it?

it's every bit as 'factual', and moreso, than the evidence Goldstone used - so why didn't he include this?

[Violet_Crumble]

15. Israel’s Fear of the Goldstone Report

The Palestinian and Arab public campaign against the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) withdrawal of the request to discuss Judge Richard Goldstone’s report and to transfer it to the UN Security Council or the International Court of Justice in The Hague had a number of various outcomes.


A negative outcome is that it weakened the PA’s reputation and status, and even destabilized its internal status, especially after it was heavily criticised by its own apparatuses and cadres.


A positive outcome is that it caused the PA to reconsider its position and request that the Goldstone report is discussed in order to contain public anger. As a result, there was another positive outcome; the request to re-discuss the report was expanded to include a special article on Israel’s colonial behaviour in Jerusalem, an issue the Palestinians and Arabs have long been silent about, to the extent that their silence is now being questioned.


A third ambiguous result was that the uproar surrounding the PA’s position on the Goldstone report was linked to another similar controversy over the Egyptian reconciliation accord and whether or not it should be signed. As a result, the reconciliation process was subjected to instability, which the Hamas movement sought to exploit by adding more articles to the reconciliation accord. These included having a right to armed resistance, emphasizing Palestinian rights and principles that no Palestinian body can abandon. On the other hand, the PA in Ramallah tried to develop the threat of holding Palestinian legislative elections only in the West Bank in early January 2010 if Hamas postpones signing the reconciliation accord.


This was stated by the President Mahmoud Abbas and is most dangerous because it consolidates the existing doubts of what is described as “the West Bank apparatuses” and “the political solution in the West Bank,” which invalidates the unity of the Palestinian Cause and reduces it to a small geographical area.


In context of the above, the Goldstone report received a strong reaction. Following are examples of what was printed in the Israeli press about the development of such reactions and Israel’s great fear of the report. There was also a focus on some initial results of the crisis of the Goldstone report such as Israel’s deteriorating ties with Turkey.

http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=18536

[bemildred]

16. Goldstone rejects Israel protests

UN human rights investigator Richard Goldstone has rejected Israel's claim that the peace process would be harmed by his report on the offensive in Gaza.

Judge Goldstone said there was no peace process at present and Israel's foreign minister did not want there to be one.

---

Mr Goldstone's remarks came in a conference call with American rabbis.

"It's a shallow, utterly false allegation," Mr Goldstone said of Israel's attempt to brand his report as an obstacle to peace.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8316770.stm

[shira]

19. lame deflection by Goldstone - he is not slamming the Israeli govt. as much as the Israeli people...

...who simply will not compromise their security to a UN body that will not allow Israel to defend its citizens in the event land is ever traded for peace.

Goldstone is completely out of touch with the Israeli public.

[bemildred]

20. Goldstone as a touchstone for Obama

---

Israel and its allies have launched a tide of vituperation against Goldstone since the release of the report in September, but it risks splashing back in their faces. They have accused Goldstone, a Jewish pro-Israeli judge whose daughter made Aliyah to settle in Israel, of anti-Semitism. This charge stretches credulity almost as far as their accusation of bias against Goldstone, a judge who is the West's favorite legal maven at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Some of that embarrassment was evident in the statements made by American and other Western allies at the Security Council and at the Human Rights Council. For example, the US and UK's statements at the October 14 Security Council meeting, which considered the Middle East without voting on the report, were carefully worded to suggest that the mandate was biased - but without impugning Goldstone's integrity. Indeed, the mandate had been biased, but Goldstone only accepted the position on the condition, accepted by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, that he would expand it and investigate all sides.

The statements from the Western allies were clearly thrown in as a sop to Israel and its supporters, but only an extraordinarily blinkered Likud politician would draw much comfort from the persistent calls from the US, the UK, France and others that Israel and Hamas should indeed investigate the allegations of war crimes in a transparent and impartial way. Even UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, who came into office as a close friend of Israel, joined the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in calling for an impartial investigation - not to mention Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other respected non-governmental organizations.

Much of the strongest vilification comes from commentators who have clearly not read the report. The fact-finding mission found that there was a serious case to answer - not guilt - so even as they damned the report with faint praise, the US and its allies were implicitly endorsing its major conclusion - the need for a credible and independent investigation by both Israelis and Palestinians.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KJ20Ak02.html

[bemildred]

17. Israeli defense chief (Barak) rejects probe into Gaza war

JERUSALEM — Israel's defense minister is blocking the government from considering international calls for an independent investigation into the military's Gaza war last winter.

Israel is under heavy pressure to launch a probe following a U.N. vote last week to endorse a report accusing Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza.

---

While Israel has rejected the reports recommendations, some officials have said the government should reconsider in light of the pressure at the U.N.

But at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, participants said Defense Minister Ehud Barak refused to allow the issue to be discussed.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD9BERP180

[Violet_Crumble]

22. As occupier, Israel must face up to Goldstone report

Goldstone was born in June 1967. I am not referring to the judge from South Africa, but to his report, or more precisely, the notion that Israel needs a synonym for the soul-searching it must carry out after 42 years of occupation. In the 575 pages of the report that is loaded with details, names, numbers, a list of weapons, interrogation methods and articles of international law, three paragraphs hide among the conclusions on pages 521 and 522, numbered 1674 to 1676. Here lies the explanation for the tragic results of Operation Cast Lead.

In those paragraphs Goldstone uses the term "continuum" to establish that the operation cannot be understood on its own without assessing it as part of a chain of events, which also includes the complete closure of the Gaza Strip for three years, the policy of razing homes, the arrests, the interrogations and torture, not only in the Gaza Strip but also in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In short, Operation Cast Lead is not an "incident." It is a link in a chain as old as the occupation itself.

The equation Israel is demanding - between those wounded in the Gaza operation and those wounded in Sderot, between the Qassams and the F-16s, between the mortars and the tank that killed three of Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish's daughters, between Hamas and Israel - betrays a poor understanding of the report's essence. Goldstone puts the symptom under the microscope and derives the illness. The result is a textbook whose title should have been "A manual for the occupier in the fifth decade."

Unfortunately for us, the publication of this tome, not its content, has given rise to competition between Israel and other countries: The issue that concerns Israel is no longer the shocking description of the events, but if and where the report will be deliberated, and who will vote for or against. Israel has a score to settle with everyone except itself. Israel is fighting against the microscope.

And the medicine? That, too, is typical. After blaming the messenger, there is a need to look for a real culprit, who has already been found. The occupied and their violent messengers are to blame. They are the ones who attack from schools and mosques, who carry bombs in ambulances and who dare to oppose the occupation using unacceptable means, leaving no option but to kill them without discrimination. If this is so, then it is not the nature of warfare that needs to be changed but the laws that limit it. To legalize the illegitimate war. And a strategy to this end is taking shape called "asymmetric warfare" - an army against groups, an army against civilians; all that is left is for an army of legal experts to develop new legislation and provide new legitimacy to kill indiscriminately, sending Goldstone to the trash bin.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1123309.html

[shira]

24. interesting conclusion from weak article...

One more matter is puzzling. Why has the issue been directed against Israel and not, for example, the United States or Britain? Many Iraqi, Afghani and Pakistani civilians - their numbers are uncertain - have been killed in indiscriminate bombings by foreign armies. No official international investigation committee has been set up to examine the conduct of the U.S. or British armies. The reason is that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan enjoy international legitimacy, to some extent in the eyes of the local people. More importantly, the occupation in Iraq has a defined termination date. The Israeli occupation, on the other hand, gives off signs of being eternal. Disgust at this is powerful enough to affect even our friends.

Translation:

It doesn't matter if the USA or UK commits greater war crimes in Afghanistan or Iraq...those wars are legitimate.

As if Israel has no right to defend itself but the USA and UK have a right to fight thousands of miles away from their secure population centers who face no threats.

Fighting war justly really isn't as important as a just war.

There's human rights for you!!!

:eyes:

And Israel hasn't occupied Gaza in 4 years....if they did, they would be responsible for maintaining law and order there, stopping weapons smuggling, etc.