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Special Report
Israel Prepares for the Next Round
Richard Goldstone's much anticipated fact-finding report on Operation Cast Lead is scheduled to be released prior to the start of the UN Human Rights Council's next session on September 14. The report is likely to direct disproportionate criticism at Israel and its military for its conduct during the Operation.
After all, the Goldstone Commission's original mission was "to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying power, Israel, against the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, due to the current aggression." One of the members of the Goldstone Commission, Christine Chinkin, even signed a letter earlier this year condemning Israel for committing war crimes. Knowing that the Commission had already reached it conclusion, Israel refused to participate in the investigation.
The Human Rights Council is the successor to the UN Human Rights Commission, which sponsored the infamously anti-Semitic Durban Conference in 2001. So far, the Council seems determined to carry on tradition with its biased and unjustified focus on Israel.
It is only part of a full-fledged assault on Israel since it responded to Hamas rocket attacks last December with Operation Cast Lead. Groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been publishing reports accusing Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity and urging the International Criminal Court (ICC) to exercise jurisdiction. The Arab League commissioned an "Independent Fact Finding Committee," headed by John Dugard, accusing Israel of the same and imploring the ICC to prosecute Israelis. Dugard is also working with organizations to petition South African courts to prosecute Israelis.
Israel has attempted to refute many of the misleading and inaccurate claims with its own report, reminding the public that Hamas -- whose charter states "there is no solution to the Palestinian problem except Jihad" -- launched nearly 3,000 rockets and mortar shells at Israel in 2008 alone, and that it stored weapons in schools, mosques, U.N. facilities, and homes, while using medical facilities and ambulances for military purposes during Operation Cast Lead. Israel also provides extensive evidence that Hamas used "human shields," whereas Amnesty and the Arab League concluded there was no evidence of such tactics. (Please go to YouTube and type in "Fathi Hamad" to draw your own conclusion.)
Israel also details how it used extreme care to avoid civilian casualties, employing a comprehensive warning system that included distributing millions of leaflet warnings in Gaza and systematically checking and cross-checking targets to avoid striking civilians. And the IDF refused to strike Shifa hospital, where Hamas established its main headquarters, because of the risk of civilian collateral damage.
Israel is still in the process of conducting its own investigations into allegations of wrongdoing, examining approximately 100 complaints, including 13 criminal investigations. The investigations are then subject to review by the Military Advocate General (MAG), who is independent from the IDF command hierarchy, and then subject to further review by the Attorney General and then the Supreme Court of Israel. If there is sufficient evidence for an indictment, then the MAG Corps will proceed with prosecutions in the Military Courts. For anyone who thinks that the process is rigged or that Israel cultivates a "culture of impunity," consider that from 2002 through 2008, 1,467 criminal investigations were opened into alleged soldier misconduct, 140 indictments issued, and 103 defendants convicted.
Despite propaganda from critics, Israel's internal integrity is well respected internationally. In fact, the National Court of Spain recently rejected universal jurisdiction over previous incidents in Gaza because Israel is investigating the matters itself, and its system is sufficiently independent and impartial. The ICC and South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority should follow their lead and remove themselves from the political fight. Don't expect the Goldstone Report to reach the same conclusion.
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Nick| 9.11.09 @ 7:13AM
Thank you Mr. Joshpe.
We need articles like yours to remind us how corrupt and evil the UN truly is.
David Webb| 9.11.09 @ 7:36AM
Israel does indeed investigate -- and when necessary, bring to trial -- soldier who violate the law. It is truly unfortunate that the mainstream media cannot be relied upon to fairly portray both sides of every issue. Brett, well researched, and well written.
Dave T. Levine| 9.11.09 @ 7:41AM
What is amazing to me is that groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch claim to be in favor of human rights, fair treatment of civilians in times of war, etc, etc. But they almost always minimize the grossly deliberate terrorist actions of organizations like Hamas and Al Qaeda while ignoring the one government in the region that is responsible, seeks peace and monitors its own military closely.
S.L. Toddard| 9.11.09 @ 9:44AM
I've had to ask this before, but let me know if I have this right:
Israel is Good
The Palestinians are Evil (or, at best, people who *could* be good but are misled by wily Evil Islamists)
When Israel slaughters Palestinians it is in justified retaliation for Palestinians slaughtering Israelis
When Palestinians slaughter Israelis, it is NEVER in justified retaliation for Israel killing Palestinians, it is because they are Evil Terrorists
Every Israel attack has been in essence an act of self defense
No Palestinian attack can be justified as self defense - they are all by definition Evil Terrorist Attacks
In the Gaza War, in which 13 Israelis were killed, Israel was the victim
In the Gaza War, in which 1,100 Palestinians were killed and over 5,000 wounded, Palestinians were the Evil Terrorist Agressors who Deserved It
Israelis, who forced Arabs from their homes at gunpoint, occupied their land, confined them to an open-air prison for four decades, deny them freedom of movement or access to medical supplies for their children, deserve our support because they are The Victims, they are Good and are Surrounded by Enemies
Palestinians, who were driven from their homes at gunpoint by Israelis, had their land occupied, have been confined to an open-air prison for four decades, are denied freedom of movement or access to medical supplies and live under humiliating conditions imposed by the Israelis do NOT deserve our support or sympathy because they deserved ALL of it and it is ALL justified because they are Evil Terrorists.
Every act of Israeli violence is legally and morally justified
Every act of Palestinian violence is morally unjustified and never in retaliation for anything, but merely the acts of anti-semitic, Nazi-like Evil Terrorist Jew-Haters who wish to extinguish the Jewish People
--------------------------
Is that about right?
Galen| 9.11.09 @ 10:42AM
Isn't it about time the UN was but so sleep?
Ray| 9.11.09 @ 11:38AM
" I've had to ask this before, but let me know if I have this right: "
No, you have it wrong. According to the U, it's Israel that's evil. The Palestinians are good. It's Israel who conducts terrorist activities in "occupied" areas. It's the Palestinians who are peaceful, non-threatening people who just want to return to their country. It's the Jews of Israel who eat children, fund wars, commit atrocities, and generally make the Middle East a war zone. It's Israel who's at fault, everyone else is just a victim of Evil Zionism and the Jews planes for world domination, wit America's help of course. Just ask the Palestinians and they'll tell you all about it.
Is that about right?
Daisy| 9.11.09 @ 1:15PM
To answer S L Toddard’s question "Is that about right", the answer is yes. You just about nailed it.
Israel = good
Palestinians/anyone criticizing Israel = bad
But the more important question is why? Why do so many people – people who have no ethnic or religious connection to Israel (hence our Evangelical “Christian” brothers and sisters) accept this as the truth and are so vicious in their attacks against people who disagree (hence the attacks on Pat Buchanan). Why are these people so willing to put the US at risk, our security our safety and well being, to support Israel. I just don’t understand this.
Wesley Mouch| 9.11.09 @ 1:56PM
I think it is important that as Americans we fully support Isreal at all times without criticism. We must bind ourselves totally to them to the point that any action they take is fully reflected on us, as if we have done it ourselves. There must be no daylight between us, & let all the world know it. There is no "other side" to the Middle East conflict, & there is no Palestine or Palestinians for that matter, only squatters occupying Isreal's land. I know all this to be true because I read the Bible & saw it on TV.
Pingback| 9.11.09 @ 3:45PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Israel Prepares for the Next Round [ links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 9.11.09 @ 6:02PM
Suicide bombers, indiscriminate use of mortars, rockets and artillery, worldwide attacks on all things Israeli and the UN decries Israel? If the IDF reacted in kind, there'd be NO Arabs whatever in any of the countries surrounding Israel. The Israelis are fighting for their national survival constantly and I don't think the Arabs are too much worried about being massacred and driven into the sea. To Hell with the United Nations of dictators and despots.
Sultana Jaber| 9.11.09 @ 11:27PM
In the Gaza War, in which 1,100 Palestinians were killed and over 5,000 wounded Bailey Button Ugg Boots , Palestinians were the Evil Terrorist Agressors who Deserved It Israelis, who forced Arabs from their homes at gunpoint, occupied their land, confined them to an open-air prison for four decades, deny them freedom of movement or access to medical supplies for their children, deserve our support because they are The Victims, they are Good and are Surrounded by Enemies .Palestinians, who were driven from their homes at gunpoint by Israelis, had their land occupied, have been confined to an open-air prison for four decades cheap ugg boots , are denied freedom of movement or access to medical supplies and live under humiliating conditions imposed by the Israelis do NOT deserve our support or sympathy.
Alan Brooks| 9.11.09 @ 11:27PM
Goldstone's
fact-finding = ax-grinding.
harley kitt| 9.11.09 @ 11:29PM
But they always minimize the grossly deliberate terrorist actions of organizations like ugg boots uk . But they almost always minimize the grossly deliberate terrorist actions of organizations like Hamas and Al Qaeda while ignoring the one government in the region that is responsible Hamas and cheap ugg boots Al Qaeda while ignoring the one government in the region that is responsible.
Alan Brooks| 9.11.09 @ 11:54PM
Iranians are so very brave-- they would be willing to fight to the last drop of Iraqi blood.
Richard Baker| 9.12.09 @ 8:29AM
Sultana:
Leave the Israelis alone and they won't find it necessary to use scorched earth policies. That thought never enters into the Arab mind. There would have been no expansion beyond the pre-1967 borders if the Arabs would have left the Israelis be. Trade places, sport, and you'd do the same thing. Oh, I forgot, Saladin is coming to saaave the Arabs. How foolish of me.
KyMouse| 9.12.09 @ 10:29AM
Mr. Toddard, what are your views about the fact that Jews aren't welcome to live in Gaza? What other cities, regions or countries do you think should be cleansed, in one way or another, of their Jewish populations?
About one in five Israelis is Arab. If memory serves, 63 Arabs have served in the Knesset since its beginning. About a dozen are currently in office. How many Jews are elected representatives in the governments of Arab countries?
A 2008 survey by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government found that 77 percent of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel that anywhere else.
Teodor| 9.12.09 @ 11:19AM
Isreal is like the Sparta, they are all fighters, but that's not good, because we are civil people
Sean| 9.12.09 @ 2:53PM
Next round? You must mean Lebanon, again. Israel is ramping up another atrocity against the innocent Lebanese, trying to draw Iran into the fray. Then they'll tell you throwbacks it was all their fault, and you'll drool your support.
Richard Baker| 9.12.09 @ 7:38PM
All these apologists for the Arabs forget that Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank are rife with Hezbollah, Hamas, and Fatah whose uncompromising desire is the murder of millions of Israelis and the destruction of the country. As I said to Sultana, trade places with the Israelis and you'd do the same thing. Leave them alone and they won't be conducting military operations. They've tried at the government level to engage the Arabs in economic development for decades, to no avail. Should they commit national suicide to make liberals happy?
Sean| 9.12.09 @ 8:18PM
Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank are rife with dead innocents, murdered by IDF. Trade places with the Palestinians and you'd want the end of Israel, because they richly deserve it.
Richard Baker| 9.12.09 @ 10:20PM
Sean:
You are ignorant of history. Upon their Independence in 1948, Israel was attacked by the combined Arab armies. If there are innocents killed, it's because the various Arab governments consider them cannon fodder and the terrorist groups intermingle and hide among them while rocketing and mortaring the Israelis. Your ilk conveniently ignore the reality of why these people are killed in your intellectual flaccidity. Center of Mass.
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Alan Brooks| 9.12.09 @ 11:03PM
Todd-lard has a right to dislike Jews. No one has to like anyone, including phony liberals.
Just say "I find Jews unsavory."
You're only a fake if you hide your anti-semitism.
or someone can say "I dislike Germans."
It's a free country.
Alan Brooks| 9.12.09 @ 11:07PM
Hamas, Iran, are so very brave; they will fight to the last drop of Palestinian and Israeli blood.
Alan Brooks| 9.12.09 @ 11:17PM
But I agree there wont be peace until Israel is moved out of the region, to Bavaria, or say, to a reconstituted Prussia.
Then can the remaining factions in Palestine (what is left of it after Palestinians trash it) can have at each other.
Pashunya| 9.13.09 @ 3:43AM
If they were smart, there'll not be war
Sean| 9.13.09 @ 6:36AM
Richard Baker, you are ignorant of history. The first thing Israel did is grab 23% more land than mandated by the UN resolution. The next thing they did is to push 700,000 Palestinians into refugee status. These figures are from Israel's own official historian. For the life of me, I can't see why Palestinians should bear any burden for the sins of Europe. Israel should never have been born, and Palestine should never have been assaulted by the UN..regardless of the Holocaust.
Liora| 9.23.09 @ 10:38AM
Sean,
FYI - after 1948 the Arab states expelled more than 900,000 of their own Jewish citizens. The majority of those Jews, who had lived in muslim countries for generations, were absorbed by Israel. They lived in poverty in tents and shacks for a while because they had been forced to leave all their belongings behind them. However, today those people are indistinguishable from the rest of the Israeli population. Their children and grandchildren grew into useful and productive members of society. Population change and exchange happens all over the world, particularly because of war. The Arabs have used the so called "palestinians" as a rod with which to beat the Jews for over 60 years and will continue to do so. The vastly wealthy Arab states could have copied the Israelis and absorbed their 'brethren', but even the Jordanians (who, by the way, gobbled up 80% of the original land of 'Palestine') will not accept the 'palestinian' arabs as citizens with full rights, even though they are ethnically and religiously indistinguishable from the rest of the population. Obviously there is little point in arguing with a person such as yourself, but I thought it was worth stating the facts, at least.
Richard Baker| 9.13.09 @ 7:19AM
Sean:
You are an apologist for national slaughter and your last post shows your true colors. Of course, the Holocaust is just a Zionist construct, right? Seig Heil! Sad.
Sean| 9.13.09 @ 8:47AM
Can't you read, Dick? I said Palestine doesn't deserve to pay for the Holocaust. Want a Jewish homeland? Don't land it on Palestine. Where do I advocate violence of any kind, toward anyone? Sad.
Liora| 9.23.09 @ 10:40AM
Sean,
how are you proposing the expulsion of over 6 million jews (familiar number, huh?) from their homes without the use of violence? Sad.
Liliana| 9.13.09 @ 10:20AM
But they almost always minimize the grossly deliberate terrorist actions of organizations like Hamas and Al Qaeda while ignoring the one government in the region that is responsible
Alan Brooks| 9.13.09 @ 1:03PM
What clinches it for me is not legalistic border-dispute diatribes, but rather: where is it better to live?
in Israel or in almost all Arab nations? the answer is in the former.
Alan Brooks| 9.13.09 @ 1:10PM
Why be pessimistic?
Because Israel's enemies could move against Israel now, if they really wanted to, and if they were also willing to absorb the casualties; but Israel's enemies are biding their time.
Alan Brooks| 9.13.09 @ 1:12PM
btw, Sean,
you would be better off in an American prison, than to live for any length of time in an Arab nation.
Alan Brooks| 9.13.09 @ 1:16PM
...and I do not dislike Germans-- I just don't LOVE them.
Sean| 9.13.09 @ 6:28PM
Like Dubai, Alan? How about the UAE? As for your preferences, what if you were born Arab in Israel? How much would you like that?
Richard Baker| 9.13.09 @ 8:17PM
Sean:
You just can't stand the Israelis. If the idiot Arabs would leave the Israelis alone the killing would cease, NOW. Seig Heil, mein Herr!
Sean| 9.13.09 @ 8:49PM
Finally, some truth out of your mouth, DICK. I can't stand the Israelis. Nor can any right thinking human. I don't countenance theft, and killing to abet theft is murder.
S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 8:08AM
"If I were an Arab leader , I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal, we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti-Semitism, Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?"
- David Ben-Gurion
1st Prime Minister of Israel
liora| 9.23.09 @ 10:42AM
wow, quoting Jews out of context to suit your own hateful, twisted needs. sooooo clever. We're all sooooo impressed, Im sure.
Richard Baker| 9.14.09 @ 12:22PM
Buzz off, Sean. Safe in your home, are you? Go to Israel you puke and see how the other half lives. I dare you, bigmouth. Seig Heil!
Nick| 9.14.09 @ 2:55PM
*If you support Israel, you are a Neo-con. If you don't think the targeting and killing of Jewish civilians by radical Moslems is O.K., you are a Neo-con. If you think randomly launching lethal rockets into Jewish neighborhoods is evil, you are a Neo-con. If you don't agree that Hamas and Hezzbollah are freedom fighters, not terrorists, you are a Neo-con. If you think an Israeli Apache taking out a Hamas leader with a Hellfire missle is self-defense, you are a Neo-con.*
-S.L. Toddard
The Most Conservative Person in the World
and Grand Arbiter of Who Is and Is Not Conservative
S.L. Toddard| 9.14.09 @ 3:08PM
"If I were an Arab leader , I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal, we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti-Semitism, Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?"
- David Ben-Gurion
1st Prime Minister of Israel
Sean| 9.14.09 @ 7:13PM
Buzz off? What are you, 12? Ooohhh, I'll get you at recess!
You got nothing, loser. That's why you attack the messenger.
Nick| 9.14.09 @ 11:56PM
I'm sorry, Sean, what was your message?
Oh, ...wait.., I see it. You're a hypocrite!
You're calling someone childish? Ha-Ha!
Smithy| 9.15.09 @ 6:44AM
For many of you doubting Thomas's who believe every thing that come out of the Arab world or almost as bad, the UN! Please read Melanie Philips blog in the UK Spectator on all things jewish and get the other slant on things. http://www.spectator.co.uk/mel.....rial.thtml
Richard Baker| 9.15.09 @ 8:23AM
Sean:
And you were the punk who said earlier that you were going to run "you and yours" out of the country in reference to me? Sport, the best part of you ran down your Father's leg.
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Sean| 9.15.09 @ 4:38PM
Your fascination with all things Nazi is kinda fruity, DICK. Col. Klink fruity.