Slamming Israel with one-sidedness
The Los Angeles Times publishes an op-ed by 'Palestinian' law professor George Bisharat (who lives in the United States) that urges that Israel be held accountable for the Goldstone Commission Report's findings. This urging must be resisted, and Israel's serial violations of international law -- whether in pulverizing Lebanon in 2006; illegally detaining, torturing or assassinating Palestinians under its dominion in the occupied Palestinian territories; or building settlements on Palestinian lands for exclusive Jewish occupancy -- must come to an end. Israel may not be the worst human rights violator in the world, but it is among those that most consistently evade accountability.It takes deliberate ignorance to characterize Israel's actions in Operation Cast Lead (in response to thousands of rockets ignored by the Goldstone Commission) and in Lebanon as anything other than self-defense. Bisharat sets up a straw man with baseless charges against Israel, and then knocks him down.
Israeli abuses are deeply resented around the globe. For too long, we in the United States have abetted Israel, bestowing on it roughly $3 billion annually in aid since 1973 and vetoing scores of resolutions in the Security Council that attempted to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law.
To his credit, President Obama has called for a halt to new Israeli settlements, though he has failed to enunciate consequences for Israeli defiance. He should now embrace the Goldstone recommendations strongly, and must also demand an immediate end to Israel's illegal siege of Gaza.
Israel's friends, rather than reflexively dismissing Goldstone's findings, should reflect instead: Are the interests of Israeli citizens genuinely served by continued indulgence of their military's excesses? Impunity for one state undermines the very legitimacy of international law. Yet international law protects weak and strong alike, and we ignore its continuing abuse at our peril.
The Goldstone Commission was incredibly biased against Israel from the outset. Its four members had all condemned Operation Cast Lead before joining the Commission, and one of them had even found Israel guilty of 'war crimes' before the hearings started. Its mandate was only to look at Israeli 'war crimes' and not at 'Palestinian' war crimes. It came out with the perverse result that Israel used 'human shields,' when in fact there is video documentation that the 'Palestinians' used human shields. It did not cross-examine witnesses. It took all 'eyewitness' testimony at face value. Its conclusions would never stand up in a real court of law.
Israel does not occupy Gaza. It left there unilaterally in 2005. The Egyptians could certainly open their border with Gaza if they chose to do so. As to the so-called 'West Bank,' Israel liberated that territory - which did not belong to any country under international law - in a defensive war that was started by five Arab nations (in violation of international law - specifically Article 51 of the UN charter) that were seeking to annihilate Israel.
Bisharat gives Israel about as fair a shake as the Goldstone Commission did. Given that Bisharat is a 'Palestinian,' I would not expect otherwise. But there is certainly much to criticize in the 'Palestinian' narrative using international law.
The picture at the top of this post is of Lauren Booth, Tony Blair's sister-in-law, in a grocery store in Gaza showing how the 'Palestinians' are starving because of Israel's 'blockade.'
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:41 PM
3 Comments:
If the Goldstone Commission's findings were universally applicable, George Bisharat would have a point. He doesn't because it is meant to apply to just one country in particular - Israel. It makes no new universal rules of warfare and as applied to Israel makes it all but impossible for the country to defend itself from attack. As Carl stated, such a finding would never hold up in a real court of law in a Western country. The Goldstone Report was born in sin and it deserves to be buried and forgotten in sin.
Caroline Glick had some thing to say about the Goldstone Report. The Hebrew text of Psalm 121 says its all:
Shir lama’a lot.
Essa einai el heharim,
Me’ayin yavo ezri.
Ezri me’im Adonai, oseh shamayim va’aretz.
Al yiten lamot raglecha, al yanum shomerecha.
Hineh lo yanum velo yishan, shomer Yisrael.
Adonai shomerecha, Adonai tzillecha, al yad yeminecha.
Yomam hashemesh lo yakkekkah, veyareach balailah.
Adonai yishmorcha mikol ra, yishmor et nafshecha.
Adonai yishmor tzetcha uvoecha, me’attah ve’ad olam.
The rest, including the beautiful English translation from the Mesorah series can be found here:
A song of ascent.
I will raise my eyes upon the mountains;
Whence will come my help.
My help is from Hashem;
Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to falter;
Your Guardian will not slumber.
Behold he neither slumbers nor sleeps -- the Guardian of Israel.
Hashem is your Guardian;
Hashem is your shade at your right hand.
By day the sun will not harm you,
Nor the moon by night.
Hashem will protect you from every evil;
He will guard your soul.
Hashem will guard your going out and your coming in.
From this time and forever.
That is Israel's answer to Goldstone.
Read it all
Another rendition of Psalm 121 from the beautiful and talented Ania Bukshtein:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1YGO6veh_M&NR=1
Its all in Hebrew but I think this clip says more about the character of the men and women who serve in the IDF than all the lies Goldstone wrote about them!
May Hashem bless them and Am Yisrael forever!
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