RSSIsraeli War Crimes in Gaza
Gene Lalor | December 20, 2009
Eminent South African judge Richard Goldstone’s blistering indictment of Israeli war crimes during the brief Gaza War of a year ago was met with equally-blistering rebuttals by Israel and its supporters who seem to overlook the significant fact that Goldstone is a Jew.
In a flight of distorted fancy, one Israel-defender accused Goldstone of “a moral inversion” who “has preserved his judicial reputation while perpetrating a blood libel against Israel:” http://bit.ly/5Ctff.
Relaying the truth must have become immoral and libelous while I wasn’t watching.
Appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council as Chairman of an investigative body commissioned to explore human rights abuses during that 3-week war, Goldstone’s findings did criticize both Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces, the IDF, but reserved the bulk of its condemnation for the nation of Israel. 
To be sure, the U.N. HRC is a much-tainted body, as is the United Nations itself, but Goldstone is a highly-regarded objective jurist who exhaustively researched the actions of both sides in Gaza before issuing what has become known as the Goldstone Report.
Officially titled “Human Rights in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories: Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” the English language pdf version may be read here in its entirety: http://bit.ly/1BjEXr
In line with its usual bias, and to Goldstone’s consternation, the top-heavy anti-Israel U.N. council then deleted sections dealing with war crimes committed by Hamas, et al.
References to the ceaseless bombings of Israeli border towns, which resulted in 14 Israeli deaths, were omitted in favor of devoting virtually the entire content to Israeli war crimes and human rights abuses.
For its part, Israel is said to have killed some 770 civilians, including 412 (or 1200 children, depending on the source) as well as 700 enemy combatants, numbers Israel disputes: http://bit.ly/7kw3Ra.
It was clearly a wildly disproportionate response against a suffering people in light of minimal Israeli human losses. The Goldstone Report charges a systematic Israeli policy to inflict suffering on that civilian population.
Still, considering how astute Goldstone is supposed to be, it’s amazing that he anticipated anything different than a whitewash of Hamas from the United Nations.
That, however, is not the chief issue which is that Israel touts itself as being “the most moral army in the world” yet committed the most atrocious crimes imaginable against defenseless Gazans.
Granted, Israel’s amoral enemies secreted weaponry in mosques, hospitals, and schools and launched missile atttacks from private homes and Israel contends it gave fair warnings of imminent assaults but that was no excuse for the IDF to resort to tit-for-tat violations of international law.
Goldstone went so far as to demand immediate punishment of IDF members responsible for the atrocities, an unlikely scenario since he also contends it was official policy: The highest in the IDF chain of command as well as the politicians who chose that policy would not be exempted from punishment.
Reasonable people expect terrorist organizations such as Hamas to employ any and all tactics, strategies, and weaponry at their disposal. Those same reasonable people expect a civilized nation to resist the temptation to retaliate in kind if they want to be regarded as civilized.
Despite its protestations to the contrary, Israel is no more moral than its declared foes. It may be an ally of the United States but it has proved repeatedly that its chief interest is Israel and not the best interests of the United States.
Israel also may be the only ally we have in the Mid East and a bulwark against the Arabs but it can be treacherous in defending its self-interests which it vividly demonstrated when it attempted to sink the USS Liberty.
Israel has never admitted responsibility nor paid reparations for that unprovoked war crime against a faithful ally. 
See “The USS Liberty Revisited:” http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1135
America should always remember to keep its friends close, its enemies closer, and pseudo-friends, alleged moral buddies even closer.
On a personal note, I agree with almost all of Israel’s actions in Gaza. When terrorist activity threatens a nation’s very survival, there should be an all-out effort to defeat the enemy.
Just don’t hypocritically pretend to be “the most moral army in the world” if the alternative is abject defeat.
You listening, Mr. President?
Contributor's website: http://www.genelalor.com/
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