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TechnoratiCongress, Accountability, and the Goldstone Report
I have been to the Gaza Strip twice and southern Israel once since the 2008-09 war, where I had the opportunity to listen to accounts from both people about what had happened to them during that time. Israelis showed me thickly walled rooms that act as bomb shelters and explained air raid siren systems in Sderot and Ashqelon. As difficult as their situation was, nothing could have prepared me for the level of destruction I found in Gaza. I walked through bombed-out buildings like the United Nation's food and aid storage facility and the children's ward of al-Quds hospital and heard stories from people who had lost families and homes. The entire territory seemed to have been razed to the ground.
I imagine that Judge Goldstone had a similar experience in Gaza where he and his team visited with survivors while conducting the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. "It was a very difficult investigation which will give me nightmares for the rest of my life," he said in a television interview last week.
The human rights framework is critical for all parties involved to move forward in the wake of operation "Cast Lead"--and that's precisely what Goldstone's report provided to the United Nation's Human Rights Council. The council overwhelmingly voted to endorse the mission's recommendations. Now members of the U.S. House of Representatives have pushed to bury that report for good in a fast-track vote that passed 344 to 36.
Many of its critics have called the report "unbalanced" (the House Resolution uses the term "irredeemably biased"). Actually, the report was far more "balanced" than the war--it found Palestinian groups had violated international law as well as Israel. The war itself was terribly unbalanced in terms of disproportionate loss of life and livelihood. Palestinian militants killed nine Israelis, including three civilians, during the three-week conflict. While these actions should be condemned roundly, so should the actions of the Israeli military that cost at least 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza--the majority of whom were civilians--their lives. Despite all the attacks on the messenger, no one has claimed that any allegation in the report is actually false.
Congress--and all Americans for that matter--should welcome each and every investigation of human rights violations, wherever and by whomever they may have been committed. In this particular case, we provide $3 billion annually for weapons and military equipment to one of the two parties (Israel) alleged to have used those weapons illegally. We have more responsibility than any other country to ensure that serious investigations are undertaken.
Upholding the Goldstone Report in no way prevents the Israeli government from conducting an internal investigation--and they should do just that. Knesset member Yuli Tamir expressed the necessity of accountable reporting after events such as the last war with Gaza while speaking on a panel in Washington last week. "We should have had an inquiry," she said, "we will, but it will be too little, too late, and not trusted because it is coming after international pressure." Israeli human rights groups such as B'Tselem and international organizations like Human Rights Watch have already published their reports on the war.
There is obviously a lot at stake for both Israel and the Palestinians in the wake of the most violent actions against the occupied territories since the occupation itself in 1967. Another round of peace talks is about to take place, with the U.S. again taking up the part of the "honest broker". Dismissing much of what happened in Gaza will do little to earn us any respect in that role and has the potential to seriously upset that process.
9 Comments so far
Show Allif you want to hear about a real israeli atrocity, one that is historically underplayed, google up the name count folk bernadotte, a un diplomat murdered by israelis. one of his killers was the vaunted ben gurion's valet. no punishment, no arrests, no nothing. especially galling since the count, as a neutral, worked to free 31,000 people from nazi imprisonment in the middle of the war, 7300 of whom were jewish. it is a heartbrealing account, since everyone in israel knew who his murdereres were, but did nothing about it. there is, interestingly enough, a statute of limitations on these kinds of killings in, of all places, israel. i wonder what simon wisenthal would think about that. remember that people who did this kind of thing 60 years ago in germany are, and very rightly so, still being exposed, deported and sometimes jailed. but why should we expect high standards from israel?
Nothing but extension of the same hypocrisy that demonizes Iran's legal nuclear program (at least so far as proved under the anti-proliferation, of which Iran is a signator), while ignoring (or abetting as some say) Israel's nuclear stockpile in defiance of the nuclear anti proliferation treaty.
But I could be wrong !
Thanks to Obedient Servant and Henry 8 for stopping an unwarranted "flag". So, here's another. I watched the Boyle interview and played it over and over again in order to get every word. It's significant when an IDF official admits that Israel controls the US via PR. Incidentally, this came from a short video on this website.
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
"I spoke with the head military lawyer of the IDF [Israeli Defense Force], Joel Zinger, and I said 'You know, I'm two weeks here, and it's clear you people are inflicting Nuremberg crimes on the Palestinians, exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews. What's your explanation?' He said 'Military necessity'. Notice, he didn't disagree with me. I said 'That argument was rejected at Nuremberg when the lawyers for the Nazis made it.' So then he said, "Well, we have public relations people in the United States, and they handle these matters for us.' " -Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law, University of Illinois
The Israeli propaganda and lobbying groups came through. A large majority of the House of Representatives voted for the resolution to condemn the Goldstone report. While it proved that Congress will parrot the Israeli propaganda,grovel and throw money at them, the resolution was an excercise in stupidity and futility. The report is out world wide for the world to see and decide upon. It can't be brought back. The old phrase,"Closing the barn door after the horse is gone" comes to mind.
"The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate."
-- Senator Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee: 10/07/1973 on CBS' "Face the Nation".
Anti-Flag indeed!
Whats going on here. A flag on this is absurd. That is exactly what Senator Fulbright said......its a direct quote. He also said it elsewhere at that time in a number of speeches.
He was referring to specific policies, not all policies.
Flagging this is not, under any circumstances warrented.
Anti-flag!
There's no reason in the world that Gene Therapy's minimal comment should be flagged.
Some disgruntled keeper of the faith is abusing the "flagging" capability, apparently in an attempt to censor any comments that refer unfavorably to a certain rogue terrorist state in the Middle East.
Knock yourself out!
· Yr Obd't Servant
I am getting tired of the Obama-apologists who keep telling me how much the Obama administration has changed the image of our country around the world. As is the case with so much of the Obama PR the reality is quite different from the hype.
1. There is the continued occupation of Iraq and an apparent slowdown of troop withdrawals and occasional unrestricted talk by Generals of how we might need to stay there after 2011.
2. In Afghanistan/Pakistan the drone attacks have received widespread condemnation and the omens predict that Obama will escalate the conflict there with additional troops.
3. After the condemnation of the military coup in Honduras the former Honduran president was left in the lurch.
4. Hillary Clinton's world tours have been disasters of empire-speak, especially her pratfall on Israel/Palestine.
5. Poland and the Czech Republic had to be mollified after the sudden cancellation of the "star wars system".
6. Chancellor Merkel was treated with unpardonable disdain on the Opel-GM deal.
7. Our interference in the Afghan elections smacked of pure-sang colonialism.
8. The Goldstone report deserves a serious discussion and not the disastrously cavalier dismissal by our Congress. The Muslim world already knows more about this report than us Americans.
All-in-all that is not a record to be very proud of nor is it a record that you can believe in for the future. After a brief "hallelujah-euphoria" in some parts of the world following Obama's election to the presidency the reality that the Obama administration is just as imperialist-oriented as its predecessors begins to surface. I am not surprised because based on Obama's interviews with the Chicago Tribune, his speeches at AIPAC, and his statements during the campaign I had already concluded and warned in early 2008 that he was an "imperialist-lite". How many of you know that he stated in one of the Chicago Tribune interviews that our country might have to do a "sanitary" military action in Iran at some time in the future? Since nothing against Iran was "off the table" for candidate Obama "sanitary" included atomic weapons.
Crowsnest
What a great posting!
The reality is that this bunch is no more to be trusted that the last. That the "world community" is laughing themselves sick at the naivete of this President who mistakes Diplomacy for a Foreign Policy.
Ole Hillaries oops in Packistan didn't help either.