Israel: UN Gaza Report "Makes A Mockery Of History"

President Shimon Peres said Wednesday that the Goldstone report, which accuses Israel of committing war crimes during its military offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip earlier this year, "makes a mockery of history."

The president issued a stinging rebuke to the report, which was commissioned by the United Nations and authored by Richard Goldstone, a South African war crimes prosecutor who investigated Israeli and Palestinian conduct during Operation Cast Lead.

Though the report accuses both Israel and Hamas of carrying out war crimes during the three-week campaign in Gaza, it focuses primarily on Israel's actions during the fighting.

Over the course of the hostilities, which erupted on 27 December 2008 and lasted three weeks, human-rights groups say approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, along with Israeli fatalities of three civilians and 10 soldiers.

Israel says it launched the offensive in response to persistent Palestinian rocket fire against towns and communities in the western Negev.

"The report in practice grants legitimacy to terrorism, premeditated shooting and killing while ignoring the duty and the right of a state to defend itself, something which is explicitly stated in the UN charter," Peres said.
...

Read the whole story: Haaretz.

Comments

[Fein]

Another case of Kim Jon Il's publicist moonlighting for the Israelis - 'farcical Israeli denial at it's absurd, best.'

[jasjohn128]

Another slander against our ally, and another opportunity for Hamas and the desert Arabs to play on our misguided sympathies and help them destroy Israel. I don't know why we in America and the West refuse to realize how little, how very little, we actually owe these Arabs and their bloodthirsty leaders.

Israel's been showing remarkable restraint toward these people for over sixty years, and that's 59 years too long, in my opinion. Israel is a legitimate state, our friend and ally; and unlike Arabs in Gaza, Judea, Samaria, France, Britain, Germany, Sweden - and probably Brooklyn and Detroit - Jews and Israelis don't cheer when American citizens or soldiers are killed in suicide bombings or our buildings are blown up by Arab "martyrs" with truck bombs.

UN fairytales like this latest "Gaza Report" are issued every couple of months. So what? We in the West ought to get real about who's our friend and who are our enemies over there and quit imagining we've got some debt to the Arabs that trumps our friendship and alliance with Israel.

The Israelis killed Arabs who were trying to kill them, and who encourage their people to cheer when other Arabs kill us. Good for Israel. Their enemies are our enemies, and when Israel wins, we win too.

[Ithamer]

The Jews insistence that only they are suitable to live on the Palestinians land makes it impossible to refute the fact that they are out and out racists.

[misaacm]

Curious that there was no investigation of Gaza when Hamas was busily rocketing Israeli Kindergartens. I wonder why that is.

[S1m0n]

Every time Israel attacks the messenger, they're telegraphing the fact that they can't dispute the facts.

[vascopyjama]

We have a Holocaust Museum, so does that mean one day we will have a Gaza Museum?

[Ithamer]

The Palestinian Holocaust continues.­..........­..........­..........­....

[ForeverXL]

The waffen SS would be proud of you too

[ForeverXL]

This was meant for:
Ithamer I'm a Fan of Ithamer I'm a fan of this user permalink

If being opposed to the people that are denying the basic human rights to an indigenous people and the owners of an occupied land makes me anti Semitic ITS A BADGE i WEAR WITH PRIDE.

---------------
as my reply.

[Macready]

from BBC news website:

"Israeli media said the biggest threat was seen as the possibility of charges being brought against senior Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court.

Israeli Foreign Ministry officials were said to be contacting all five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council - including the US - to prevent that from happening. "

this will be a very interesting vote . . . israel must not be allowed to get away with their crimes . . .

[bermanator]

What's the worst that happens? Israel's leaders can't go on vacation to the UK anymore?

The United Nations lacks the teeth to get anything done, as has been demonstrated by their total impotence in dealing with actual "war crimes" in Sudan, China, and the rest of the Middle East. Also, under even worse circumstances, the US military has killed nearly half a million Iraqis... anybody with any sense of perpective can see that if Israel deserves to be at the ICJ, so does the USA, NATO, and the majority of countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Any condemnation of Israel will merely be symbolic, just like the dozen or so UN resolutions Israel chooses to ignore without consequence.

[LincolnParkChicago]

Things change. The last election in the US swept out the neocons who thought they would literally rule the world for the next millenium. Obama's attitude toward Bibi left him speechless. Things change.

[myopinion2]

Much of the criticism of Israel that is posted here is not only one-sided, but virulently hateful. It is a mirror image of the extremist denials of legitimate Palestinian national aspirations, which tell Palestinians to go to Jordan. Those who traffic in vengeful or bitter hatred are not helping the cause of peace, and in fact are not even communicating with the other side, which will only hear the hatred. If we who live here in security and prosperity cannot talk civilly and reasonably about these issues, how do we expect the Israelis and Palestinians to do so.

Peace Shalom Salaam

[chirps]

"Much of the criticism of Israel that is posted here is not only one-sided, but virulently hateful."

Thanks to the Internet, the OTHER side of the story is finally starting to come out.

[LincolnParkChicago]

There is no moral equivalence here. One side is a ruthless agressor and the other is helpless and oppressed. Sometimes in a conflict, there is one undeniable agressor and one undeniable victim. Sometime both parties are being unreasonable. In this case, the israelis want to steal all the land from the Palestinians. They do not want some of the land. They do not want peace. They want the Palestinian's land. And they want the Palestinians gone.

[bermanator]

"In this case, the israelis want to steal all the land from the Palestinians"

For the thousandth time, no they don't, and history clearly demonstrates this.

If they wanted to steal the land, they would have already done it, rather than the reality of Israel destroying their own settlements in the West Bank and a total withdrawal from Gaza (both of which have already happened).

You live in a fantasy world.

[LincolnParkChicago]

It is you who lives a lie. Ben Gurion explicitly stated that "stolen" in a quote. "they see only that we have come and we have stolen their country". Try to spin it if you want but he says what he means and means what he says.

[LincolnParkChicago]

As for talking, the time for talking is over. It has been ineffective. It is time for action. There must be consequences or nothing will change.

[Ithamer]

If being opposed to the people that are denying the basic human rights to an indigenous people and the owners of an occupied land makes me anti Semitic ITS A BADGE i WEAR WITH PRIDE.

[Ithamer]

The posters to this thread should be more specific, approximately 25 % of those people living in Israel/Occupied Palestine do not support the atrocities perpetrated by the other 75 %.

[Wil]

Israel has made a mockery of decency and morality in its continued use of violence and lies in pursuit of its objectives of theft of the land and property of its would be neighbors. It is a nation and society in deep denial about its own racism.

[CigarGod]

You have defined zionism, which had it's roots in pre-war austria and germany.

[Freenation]

this response from mark regev is classic as usual playing the anti-semetic card, and after dropping WP and 2 ton bombs claiming to be a victim....

please read the interesting developments here on the latest war-mongering and hopefully not a sequel to other misadventure, check out how neo cons are pushing US to another unwanted war:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/the-latest-on-bombing-or-talking-to-iran/

The Latest on Bombing or Talking to Iran

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203917304574410672271269390.html
Obama Is Pushing Israel Toward War

classic propaganda from Murdochs yellow journalism....

[bermanator]

Your attempts to paint claims of antisemitism as something the world should automatically ignore are transparent.

If Iran doesn't play ball by the new year, a US-backed strike can be expected.

[Yank in France]

Your attachment to Israel blinds you to the strategic bind the United States and the West find themselves in, following the Iraq War debacle -- vehmently encouraged by the Israelis and many of their supporters in the US a few years ago.
The sad reality is that Iran is about to develop a nuclear bomb and neither the US nor the Israelis can do much to stop them. No, I am no peacenik: in fact, I despise the Islamists in Iran and in the Sunni world.
But what options do we have? Think before you answer: It is universally acknowledged by US military chiefs that Iran's partisans in Iraq could cause the US incredible damage in Iraq. Moreover, Iraqis would surely not side with the US but with Iran in a war -- especially a prolonged one, since these same military experts agree that Iran's nuclear capabilities could not be taken out in short time period. In fact, it is entirely possible that the Pentagon does NOT know where the best (deep underground) targets are located.
As for your point about antisemitism, racism of any kind is wrong, but the worst sin of all is to use victimhood to justify the vile persecution of another people!

[Freenation]

really say this to all the opportunist who cash on playing this anti-semitsm card...like regev quoted above...

[w0rld0fw0rcraft]

the report disengeniously reports Israel's behavior in terms of "war crimes" but there was no war; it was simply a massacre of civilians and their infrastructure.

[NeoconGal]

Well put. And they keep the border of the Gaza prison camp locked so the infrastructure cannot be repaired.

[MosheDayanHero]

No war?
Gaza calls themselves a government, their military forces are organized into units and are well armed.
The fact that they refused to wear identifying uniforms and hide behind women and children in violation of all laws notwithstanding,
And the fact that Hamas lost disastrously to well- prepared and motivated IDF doesn't change the fact that Hamas is a military organization.

[stpmdn]

Lets see if Israel can stand a real war. Lets see if Israel has the guts to attack a real country like say Iran. They can only wage war or masacre Palastiniens with no real weapons. Israel couldn't even win a war against hezbollah.

[acetylyne]

Stop spitting on us and telling us it's raining. Is it kosher to sling so much baloney?

[CigarGod]

Point taken, but I disagree. Palestine was invaded and conquered to create the Jewish state. The indigeneous people are imprisoned.
I think that sounds like a war.