Thursday, October 1, 2009
Creative title, I know.
The incomparable Maurice Ostroff writes,
Carl in Jerusalem explains Why we won't listen to Goldstone by having an in-depth look at the portion of the report that discusses the Abu Halima family: "Sounds like Mr. Goldstone didn't get his homework right." At the Adelson Institute, Yossi Klein Halevi discusses The Goldstone Factor: "The Israeli reactions to the Goldstone report on the Gaza war of January 2009 have focused, understandably, on its outrageous omissions and distortions and one-sided judgments, as well as on the moral corruption of the report's sponsor, the UN's Human Rights Commission. But the far-reaching strategic implications of the Goldstone report require no less urgent consideration..." Here is an edited version of the speech Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aharon Leshno Yaar, made before the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday. B'Tselem's Jessica Montell is seemingly backing away from previous quotes by crying that it's not too late for Israelis to blame themselves: A time for soul-searching NGO Monitor continues tearing off the Goldstone mask, by exposing who's really behind the report: House of Cards: NGOs and the Goldstone Report and Made in Europe: How government funded NGOs shaped the Goldstone report. Elder of Ziyon: Goldstone report inaccuracies part 17: ...So, although Goldstone did not find any direct corroboration for the terrible stories he tells of heartless IDF soldiers consistently picking out and shooting women and children from close range, he felt that "Ram"'s supposed testimony to the Rabin Academy acts as a reasonable proof of the Palestinian Arab testimony. The problem is that after Ha'aretz published the Rabin Academy talks, the other Israeli newspapers went to great lengths to find out whether the stories told were true. This specific incident was especially heinous and one of the soldiers that recounted the incident was tracked down by Israel's Channel Two, and he told the reporter that he did not witness the incident and in fact was not even in Gaza!... At National Review, Brett Joshpe writes, Goldstone, Are You God?: "Goldstone is an accomplished and respected legal practitioner. As such, he is very familiar with the difference between conclusions of fact and conclusions of law. The UNHRC's mandate to the Goldstone mission was to engage in fact finding. In a court of law, that's what a jury does. Instead, Goldstone decided to become jury, judge, and executioner." Finally, CAMERA's Dexter Van Zile explains that the Jesuits are getting into the act: America Magazine Invokes Goldstone Report and Mishnah Torah to Indict Israel Finally, finally, in the good news, Netanyahu is exactly right: Netanyahu nixes call for Israeli inquiry into Gaza war Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nixed the idea of setting up an inquiry committee into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip as a means of dealing with the Goldstone Commission's report. ...Netanyahu, who held two meetings on the subject on Wednesday, believes a more effective way of blocking the report would be to make it clear to the international community that referral to the ICC would sound the death knell of the peace process... ...The prime minister, they explained, fears that setting up an inquiry commission would imply that the probes now being conducted by the Israel Defense Forces are untrustworthy. In contrast, Foreign Ministry sources said Israeli representatives overseas have been flooded with messages from friendly governments urging the establishment of an inquiry commission as the best way to block the report. The defense minister's office said the government will therefore try to find some kind of compromise mechanism, headed by a senior legal figure such as Aharon Barak, that would show the international community Israel has stepped up its efforts to investigate the allegations. From Israel's perspective, the best decision the Human Rights Council could make is to continue dealing with the matter itself, while the worst would be referral to either the General Assembly or the Security Council, and thence, perhaps, the ICC. Jerusalem and Washington are coordinating closely on diplomatic efforts to achieve the former result, and are currently focusing on trying to win over the European Union, whose member states have yet to reach a consensus on the matter. In a briefing held Wednesday for ambassadors from the Asia-Pacific region, Netanyahu warned that referral to the ICC would deal a mortal blow to the peace process - as well as to democratic states' ability to fight terror...
nah, it's not ALL the jesuits.
just the ones that work at the magaazine.
the guy who run St. Ignatius are great.
Palestinians are going to cash in on this "objective" report. Here's an article about that:
http://samsonblinded.org/news/palestinians-undeterred-by-obama-13838