Recently I and other concerned Americans petitioned our representatives in the
House of Congress to vote NO on HR 867, a resolution that called for President
Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to oppose the United Nations consideration
of the Goldstone Report. (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
My Congressperson Ginny Brown-Waite co-sponsored the resolution and on November
3, 2009, 344 House congressional reps voted to kill the Goldstone Report.
In response to my plea, Congressperson Ginny Brown-Waite wrote to me:
"The Council's appointment of Richard Goldstone, a well-respected judge who is
himself Jewish, to oversee the report gave some hope that the report would be
fair. The Israeli Government, however, refused to cooperate with the
mission. The Israeli Government concluded that any report emanating from
the Human Rights Council, even with Goldstone's leadership, would be hopelessly
biased. This is a shame because the Israeli Government may have been able
to better explain its version of events and thereby prevent Hamas' side of the
story from dominating the narrative of the report.
"While the Goldstone Report did raise serious questions about Israeli actions,
it went too far when it concluded that Israeli policy in Gaza was designed "to
deliberately and systematically inflict suffering on civilians.' This is unfair
and untrue" As Ehud Barak wrote in The Wall Street Journal, "After enduring
eight years of ongoing rocket fire, and after all diplomatic efforts to stop
this barrage failed it was my duty as defense minister to do something about
it. It's as simple and self-evident as the right to self-defense. While
such logic eluded Mr. Goldstone and his team, it was crystal clear to the
thousands of Israeli children living in southern Israel who had to study, play,
eat and sleep while being preoccupied about the distance to the nearest bomb
shelter."
"Israel must never be denied its right to defend itself." Goldstone's report is
fundamentally biased and flawed and for this reason I have urged the President
to oppose further consideration of the report and supported passage of H.Res.
867."
I respond:
On April 3, 2009 the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council
commissioned a fact-finding mission "to investigate all violations of
international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might
have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that
were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January
2009, whether before, during or after."
The Council appointed the Jewish Justice Richard Goldstone, a South African
Constitutional Court judge and the former chief prosecutor of the United
Nations International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former
Yugoslavia.
Justice Goldstone issued the 575-page report on September 29, 2009 and the
Goldstone Report accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes perpetuated during
the 23 days of assault on Gaza which began two days after last Christmas day,
when the Israeli military launched Operation Cast Lead; a full-scale attack on
Gaza that killed 13 Israelis and 1,400 Palestinians.
Over 5,000 Palestinians were injured, 400,000 were left without running water,
4,000 homes were destroyed, rendering tens of thousands who are still homeless
because of Israel's targeted attacks upon them, their schools, hospitals,
streets, water wells, sewage system, farms, police stations and UN buildings.
The 23 days of Israel's attack on the people of Gaza was enabled by US-supplied
weapons paid for with US tax dollars and we the people of the US who pay taxes
provide over $30 billion annually to Israel, although Israel has consistently
misused U.S. weapons in violation of America's Arms Export Control and Foreign
Assistance Acts.
America is the world's largest arms supplier to Israel and under a Bush
negotiated deal with Israel, we the people who pay taxes in America will also
provide another $30 billion in military aid to Israel over the next decade.
During the 23 days of Israeli assault on Gaza, "Washington provided F-16
fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles, and a wide array of
munitions, including white phosphorus and DIME. The weapons required for the
Israeli assault was decided upon in June 2008, and the transfer of 1,000
bunker-buster GPS-guided Small Diameter Guided Bomb Units 39 (GBU-39) were
approved by Congress in September. The GBU 39 bombs were delivered to Israel in
November (prior to any claims of Hamas cease fire violation!) for use in the
initial air raids on Gaza. [1]
In a 71-page report released March 25, 2009, by Human Rights Watch, Israel's
repeated firing of US-made white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas
of Gaza was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes.