Video: Hamas Is Ready To Probe Goldstone Report

The video is set to start at 10:20, where the discussion of the Goldstone Report begins.

According to Meshal, Hamas doesn't actually try to kill civilians, rather 'rockets are inaccurate in targeting.'

This ignores the fact that the Goldstone Report, which actually buys into the Hamas line that the rocket they fire into civilian areas are inaccurate--and nevertheless reports on page 473:

1722. Given the apparent inability of the Palestinian armed groups to aim rockets and mortars at specific targets and, the fact that the attacks have caused very little damage to Israeli military assets, it is plausible that one of the primary purposes of these continued attacks is to spread terror – prohibited under international humanitarian law - among the civilian population of southern Israel. [emphasis added]

I suppose we are supposed to pity the terrorists for their inaccurate weapons that they fire into civilian areas anyway. Perhaps they would like to be provided with more accurate weapons?

Actually, Hamas has been very successful in consistently targeting civilian areas in general and schools in particular, as documented by the Goldstone Report:

1692. Where rockets have landed in towns and villages in southern Israel, they have caused localized property damage. This has included private houses1036 and cars.1037 During the operations in Gaza, a total of nine schools and kindergartens in Sderot, Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Kiryat Ha Hinoch were hit and damaged by rockets.1038 Two kindergartens were struck and damaged by rocket fire in Ashdod.1039 On 8 January 2009, a Grad rocket hit a school in Ashkelon.1040

Imagine: 9 schools in 5 cities. That seems to be a pattern--one that Hamas followed with great accuracy.

The reason that Hamas has been able to fire their rockets with such accuracy is that contrary to the myth of the terrorists being limited to homemade rockets, they are actually using foreign-made rockets--as the Goldstone Report documents:

1649. There is little independent confirmation of the types of weaponry held by Palestinian armed groups or the number of weapons that may be stockpiled. According to an Amnesty International report, of February 2009, the arsenals held by armed groups in the Gaza Strip include: al-Qassam (or al-Quds), 122mm Grad and 220 Fadjr-3 rockets as well as the al-Battar, the Banna 1 and Banna 2 anti-armour rockets.

...(b) 122 mm Grad rocket

1652. 122 mm Grad rocket is a Russian-designed missile with a range of approximately 20 to25 kilometres. Given the higher level of technological sophistication and the fact that it is manufactured with material not easily (if at all) available in Gaza, it is likely that they are not made in Gaza.

1653. While most 122 mm Grad rockets have a range of about 20 kilometres, some have landed 40 kilometres inside Israel.997 Global Security has concluded that on the basis of photographs, that the rockets that struck open space near Yavne and Bnei Darom on 28 December 2008 were Chinese-manufactured 122 mm WeiShei-1E rockets, which can travel distances of 20 to40 kilometres.998

Along with the fact that Hamas uses rockets manufactured by Russia and China--and thus have a longer range--these Grad rockets are also more accurate. According to GlobalSecurity.org:

Recently [prior to January 2009], Hamas imported factory manufactured rockets from China and Iran. Based on a family of Soviet rockets dating back to World War II, these rockets have the range to hit many more Israeli cities, and their introduction help precipitate the current conflict.

The Iranian rocket, called a Grad, has a range of about 12 miles, long enough to hit the Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Sderot. The Chinese rocket, called the WS-1-E (and sold on a rather cheap looking Web site for a defense company) has an even greater range of up to 27 miles, and better accuracy than the Grad. And according to Amanda Castle, the public relations manager at Jane’s Information Group, Israeli intelligence agencies also believe Hamas possesses Iranian Fajr-4 rockets, which have a range long enough to hit Tel Aviv. [emphasis added]

There is a very good reason that civilian areas in Israel are being bombed by Hamas--the terrorists are aiming right at them.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Goldstone Commission Report and Hamas.

A Preview Of Abbas's Palestinian (Police) State

According to The Daily Mail:

British police and intelligence officers sent to tackle UK-funded torturers on West Bank

The Government is sending British police and intelligence officers to the West Bank to try to stop a wave of brutal torture by Palestinian security forces funded by UK taxpayers.

Their mission is to set up and train a new ‘internal affairs’ department with sweeping powers to investigate abuse and bring torturers to justice.

The department is being paid for by Britain, with an initial planning budget of £100,000 – a sum set to soar as it becomes established.

Read the whole thing.

So in addition to the millions in funds that the West is supplying to support the various aspects of the regime of the 'moderate' Abbas, now the West has to help reign in the 'police' force it is helping to create.

This of course raises the question of where those security forces will turn when they run out of fellow Palestinians to torture and abuse.

And what of the 1,600 members of Abbas's National Security Force and Presidential Guard which have undergone U.S.-funded training since January 2008 with Lieutenant General Keith Dayton--are they under tighter control?

And what does this say about what a future Palestinian state on the West Bank would look like?
Apparently not much different than one in Gaza.

Technorati Tag: West Bank and Palestinians.

Where's Hamas? (Waldo, Eat Your Heart Out!)

Elder of Ziyon has taken the top 250 words in the conclusions and recommendations section of the Goldstone Report and put them into a graphical format using Wordle, where the size of the words indicates how often they were used.

See if you can find the word "Hamas." Even after blowing up the graphic to full size, you will have your work cut out for you.

The question is, why does the Goldstone Report consider Hamas to be such a tiny issue?

Technorati Tag: Goldstone Report and Hamas.

Kenneth Roth Forgot To Do The Math

In an op-ed in Haaretz, Kenneth Roth--executive director of Human Rights Watch--disputes the claim that his group focuses disproportionately on Israel:

Critics of Human Rights Watch's work on Israel raise three main points. First, they say we disproportionately focus on Israel, and neglect other countries in the Middle East. Second, they claim our research methodology is flawed - relying on witnesses with an agenda. Third, as recently expressed by our founding chairman Robert Bernstein, they argue that we should focus on "closed" countries such as China rather than "open" societies like Israel.

I reject all three claims.

Human Rights Watch currently works on seventeen countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Iran, Egypt, Libya and Saudi Arabia. Israel accounts for about 15 percent of our published output on the region. The Middle East and North Africa division is one of 16 research programs at Human Rights Watch and receives 5 percent of our total budget. Israel is a small fraction of what we do. [emphasis added]

I'm not sure how 15% of anything is a 'tiny fraction', but Roth's problem with math goes deeper than that.

CAMERA does the math:

Got that? HRW works on seventeen Middle Eastern and North African countries. These include not only the most obvious offenders mentioned by Roth — Iran, Egypt, Libya and Saudi Arabia — but also other far-from-skilled practitioners of human rights like Yemen, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Lebanon, Bahrain. (You can learn some more about those countries' records here.)

Let's do the math together:

• One divided by seventeen is .058, or roughly six percent.
• The 15 percent of HRW's published output from the region that Roth admits is devoted to Israel is toweringly greater than than the six percent that would go to Israel were all countries in proportion.

And there we have disproportion.

David Bernstein has noted the growing reputation of Human Rights Watch:

From now on, every HRW report on Israel is going to be greeted with "you mean the Saudi-funded HRW," or "you mean the report written by the woman [HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson] who is a great admirer of Norman Finkelstein and lobbied Kofi Annan against Israel in the middle of the Second Intifada" or "you mean the report written by the guy [Stork] who supports the anti-Israel boycott movement and has been venting his hostility to Israel for almost forty years" or "you mean HRW, the organization that fails to take down from its website anti-Israel reports even when it has admitted they are inaccurate," and so on.

And now we have one more thing about Human Rights Watch that just doesn't add up.

Technorati Tag: Human Rights Watch and HRW.

Open Letter To Judge Goldstone: "A Judge Is Expected To Look At Least For Some Evidence And Verification"

In 2002, while the media and NGO's such as Human Rights Watch accepted as fact the Palestinian claim that there was a massacre in Jenin--Dr. David Zangen couldn't stand the lies and came forward with the facts. In the end, Palestinian claims of at least 500 killed were refuted and it was discovered that 54 Palestinians--mostly terrorists--were killed.

Dr. Zangen appears in the movie The Road To Jenin, which refutes the inaccuracies and falsifications in the Palestinian propaganda film Jenin, Jenin (read the CAMERA review).

Eventually, the truth of Jenin came out and Israel was vindicated.

Now Dr. David Zangen addresses the flaws in the Goldstone Report in an open letter to Judge Goldstone:

Dear Judge Goldstone,

My name is Dr. David Zangen, I am a consultant in Pediatric Endocrinology and diabetes at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem. Over 50% of my patient population is Palestinian from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. I speak Arabic and initiated the first training program for Palestinian physicians in the field of Pediatric Endocrinology. The trained physicians were fully respected and were included as first authors on our studies that are published in world leading professional journals.

But, at the same time I happened to be the chief medical officer of my brigade during the Defensive Shield Operation in Jenin 2002. I was responsible for the medical treatment of our soldiers but also for enabling the hospital in Jenin to provide full medical services to the civilian population and I was personally involved in numerous medical treatments that Palestinians (including warriors) received from Israeli physicians.

During and after the operation the director of Jenin hospital was a source to what has been falsely called the "Massacre in Jenin where 5000 people were massacred" this same person Dr. Abu Rali has also claimed that one part of the Jenin hospital was destroyed by Israeli tank missiles "12 tank rockets were shot at the hospital …" etc

You should know, honored Judge that these statements have been proved and documented as straight lies not only by Israeli sources but also by the Human Rights Watch and the UN organizations counting only 52 dead people on the Palestinian side (23 on the Israeli side). These organizations and photographs of Jenin hospital following the operation showed no evidence for any destruction at the hospital buildings etc.

This Dr. Abu Rali a director of a hospital, a physician, lies and incites in the service of the Shahids. It is hard to believe that a director of a hospital can give such an obvious false testimony. I can't understand it and you can't understand it but unfortunately this is what has happened. Even persons who would usually be considered reliable sources become advocates of straight lies. Tragically, moral misbehavior of doctors in the Palestinian Authority is not new.

The Pediatrician George Habash sent his terrorists to kill children in Israeli schools and so did the Hamas leader the pediatrician Dr. Rantisi…and so continues to do the Pediatrician encouraging the sending of rockets from Gaza on innocent Israeli schools Dr Mahmud Zaher.

Please judge Goldstone, you should really be careful when such straight liars serve as the basis for your report. I am sure that you mean well but being an eye witness both to the events in Jenin and to the subsequent media and initial false UN reporting I do understand what happened to you. How a person of such stature and integrity could become associated with such a faulted report.

Look Judge Goldstone at your report on the Al Fakhura event on January 5-6th 2009 (paragraphs 651-688). You do report how Israel was accused for directly bombing the UNRWA school. It took 2 weeks to withdraw from this accusation but you, honored Judge, went back to get your testimony only from the same people who spread the blood libel of bombing the school.

Moreover when analyzing the scene you claim that you could not verify the numbers of 24 dead and 40 wounded but these numbers are not considered exaggerated. Finally in the Factual findings part you already determine that 24 people were killed and 40 injured!

Did you by any chance try to validate any of these invented and inciting details? Did you look at the Al Jazeera or BBC reports from the same very date of the event? Did you try to validate your "factual findings" conclusions by getting at least Emergency Room charts on the people admitted to their trauma department on this very day? Did you go over the I.D.'s of the "dead" people and the place or cemetery where they were supposedly buried?

Well you didn't!

In all the scene of "40 dead and 40 wounded" filmed by Al Jazeera and other channels reporters and screened at the same day all over the world you could not see bodies or blood spots in the streets beside two or three casualties and one footage of a single wall damaged by a bomb. As a physician who was at terrible suicide events with smaller number of casualties I can testify how it looks like for hours following the event….The media documentation of the Al Fakhura event does not verify and definitely does not go along with the fantasy and lies of your witnesses.

As a judge I must be sure that you did not mean to hurt Israel, I try to believe that you came to Gaza without prejudice…but a judge is expected to look at least for some evidence and verification (media, ER registration, burial places etc….) of the testimonies and not accept impossible "facts". You have let yourself to be misled by fabrications made by either terrorists or even doctors such as Dr. Abu Rali from Jenin.

I and my colleagues in Israel are proud of the medical service that is given equally to every human being regardless of his origin; we are also proud to belong to a nation that has the imprint of having higher moral standards than others.

The price that we pay for this status is very high. The Palestinians and other Muslims around the world, either common people or even respected doctors, use straight lies as part of the war against us. The Western world media criticizes us and tries to find where we were not behaving up to the extremely high moral standards that we made ourselves.

I call on you Judge Goldstone take this Al Fakhura event, look at the media coverage from the very same date…see the events in the context…try to live one day with the responsibility for the existence of this small nation of 6 million Jews threatened constantly by 300 million Muslims. I call on you to try and not draw conclusions from such lies and misleading witnesses even if they come from so-called professionals. In the modern world propaganda and lies are definitely a part of the war and as a judge you should not serve as a tool for augmenting hatred and conflicts.

We look for peace , we love peace and we do try our very best to fight for our right to exist in the highest possible moral standards even at the cost of our lives.

David Zangen M.D.

This letter is also available in a Hebrew translation.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Goldstone Report and Jenin and Dr. David Zangen.

Amnesty International Is All Wet

Amnesty International puts politics ahead of accuracy.

NGO Monitor: Amnesty’s Water Report Timed to Support Latest Israel Boycott Campaign

NGO Monitor

October 26, 2009

(Jerusalem) – NGO Monitor notes that Amnesty International’s 112 page report titled “Troubled Waters – Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water”, is timed to strengthen the Israel boycott campaign, coinciding with a US speaking tour linking the water issue and Israeli ‘apartheid’. The report itself is a political document which promotes an imaginary and highly distorted version of international law. In addition, it omits critical context to the conflict in order to promote the Palestinian narrative, thereby continuing the NGO-led political warfare against Israel.

• This report is the latest episode in Amnesty’s campaign against Israel. Amnesty International headquarters issued over twenty statements overwhelmingly critical of Israel during and in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict.
  
  
• Amnesty's report provides legitimacy for a speaking tour beginning November 1 at universities in the US organized by the Palestinian Cultural Academic Boycott of Israel (PCABI) movement entitled, "Israel's Control of Water as a Tool of Apartheid and means of Ethnic Cleansing." The main speaker, Omar Barghouti, is a leader of the boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
  
  
• Amnesty’s report ignores evidence that not only does Israel provide West Bank Palestinians with more water than required under the Oslo framework, but that Palestinian water thieves are responsible for stealing up to 50% of supplies in some areas.
  
  
• Amnesty claims that levels of Palestinian water consumption (60-70 liters per person per day), are “the lowest in the region.” Amnesty omits easily available evidence that this is a similar level, if not better than major regional cities such as Amman, Tunis and Algiers.
  
  
• The report is based on the claim that Israel is violating Palestinian human rights, because the Oslo framework, on which current water arrangements are based, “codified inequality in access to water resources”. This approach patronizingly assumes that the Palestinian leadership is incapable of negotiating agreements, and creates the spectre of future agreements that will be abrogated on similar ground.
  
  
• The report invents standards of international law, by erroneously claiming (including on the front cover) that Israel has an “obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to water” based on the International Covenant of Economic, Cultural & Social Rights (ICESCR). Amnesty falsely implies that the ICESCR demands a right to water when no such right is even mentioned in the treaty. In fact, the legislative history of the ICESCR indicates that the State parties deliberately omitted water issues.

In advance of Amnesty’s report, NGO Monitor’s President Prof Gerald Steinberg said, “Amnesty’s report manipulates the issue of water and ignores the complexities of history and law in order to again falsely portray Israel as a brutal regime.

Rather than recognize that water supply is a complex regional issue, Amnesty focuses only on Palestinian shortages. The report adopts a painfully simplistic narrative which places blame solely on Israel, to the extent that the Palestinian leadership is absolved of responsibility for the agreements signed under the Oslo framework.

This report has been cynically timed by Amnesty to boost a new wave of Israel boycott campaigning. It is a pointed example of Amnesty’s ongoing campaign of hostility towards Israel.”

Technorati Tag: Amnesty International.

Another One Of Those Rebuttals That Judge Goldstone Says Does Not Exist

The Israel Project describes itself as

an international non-profit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel while promoting security, freedom and peace. The Israel Project provides journalists, leaders and opinion-makers accurate information about Israel. The Israel Project is not related to any government or government agency.

Below, besides refuting 2 key findings of the Goldstone Commission Report, The Israel Project provides links to the videos of Hamas using human shields--videos of Hamas doing the things that the Goldstone Report claims there is no proof for.

Investigators Say Goldstone Report Biased, Unfairly Attacks Israel
Press Resources for the Goldstone Commission on Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces top foreign media spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich is available for one-on-one interviews on the Goldstone report. Please Contact Marty Irom at iromartin@aol.com or (516) 567-4348 to arrange an interview.

Interview with PM Netanyahu on CNN’s “Late Edition” (watch video, read transcript)

Iran Press Kit

Videos: Hamas’ Use of Civilians as Human Shields
Experts for Comment (Israeli Officials, Legal Experts, IDF Reserve Officers)
President Shimon Peres Response to Goldstone Report
PM Netanyahu's remarks at the start of today's Cabinet meeting
MFA officials brief ambassadors, foreign press on Goldstone Report
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Response to Goldstone Report
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website on the Goldstone Report

JewishJournal.com: Should Jews care about the Goldstone report?
The Guardian: A moral Atrocity
The Wall Street Journal - Israel Defense Minister: At the U.N., Terrorism Pays
The Wall Street Journal Editorial: The U.N.'s Anti-Antiterror Report
The Boston Globe - Israel Ambassador to the U.S.: UN report a victory for terror
The Wall Street Journal: UN Smears Israeli Self-Defense as 'War Crimes'
The Jerusalem Post: UN apathy, Iranian intransigence
LA Times: Goldstone Report Unfair to Israel

Outside analysts examining the UN’s Goldstone report on Israel’s operation in Gaza, published on Sept. 15, have criticized the report for its methodology and findings, including charges by the U.S. State Department that the mandate for the investigation was one-sided and focused overwhelmingly on Israel.[1]

Israel carried out the operation from late December 2008 – mid-January 2009 to put a stop to almost constant rocket and mortar attacks on Israel fired by Iran-backed Hamas into Israel – specifically to target civilians – for the past decade. Since 2003, Hamas has fired 9,400 rockets and mortars at Israel.[2]

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has highlighted some of the most troubling aspects of the report, such as inconsistencies in the report’s findings when compared to independent evidence; political bias of some of the investigators; and the mandate of the mission itself.[3] The methodological problems include:

1. The investigators did not ask Palestinian witnesses any questions relating to Palestinian terrorist activity and storage of weapons in civilian infrastructures.[4]

2. The report itself states that witnesses were unwilling to discuss “the presence or conduct of hostilities by the Palestinian armed groups,” possibly due to “a fear of reprisals.”[5]

3. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs alleges that the incidents investigated by the Goldstone team were “cherry-picked” for political effect.[6] For example, in spite of a number of sources alleging that senior Hamas officials used Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as a base of operations, the Goldstone team chose not to investigate these reports.[7]

Examples of questionable findings:

1. The Goldstone team investigated an incident in which the Al-Quds hospital in the Tel el-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City was shelled on Jan. 15. The report concluded that there weren’t any members of Palestinian terrorist groups in the hospital and that the shelling was a war crime.[8]

But a report in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted a resident of the neighborhood as saying, “The Hamas gunmen had taken refuge mainly in the building that houses the administrative offices of Al-Quds…nurses were forced to take off their uniforms so they [the gunmen] could blend better and escape the Israeli snipers.”[9]

2. The report stated that the Goldstone investigators were unable to determine whether mosques had been used by Hamas operatives for weapons storage and to stage attacks, but only investigated one such case. However, video evidence [below] and widespread reports about those and other unlawful tactics are readily available in the public domain.[10]

Videos: Hamas’ Use of Civilians as Human Shields

Jan. 8, 2009 - Footage of Hamas operatives arming a rocket launcher in a school yard in Gaza.

Jan. 6, 2009 - Footage of a terrorist shooting from a rooftop. The terrorist then identifies an Israel Air Force (IAF) aircraft preparing to fire on him and calls a group of children into the house where he is located to prevent the IAF strike. He then flees the house using the children as cover.

Jan. 12, 2009 - Footage of terrorists, one a senior operative, using children and a woman with a baby as human shields. Footage includes IAF radio communications instructing the aircraft operator not to fire on the terrorists because of the woman and children among them.

Dec. 27, 2008 - Footage of a civilian building in which weapons and explosives were being stored. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) telephoned the residents of the building, telling them to leave so they would not be harmed by the planned airstrike. Numerous civilians appear on the rooftop to prevent the airstrike, which the IDF called off as a result.

Videos illustrating:

• Storage of anti-aircraft gun and heavy weapons cache in a local mosque in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza
• Hamas using civilians to carry out military actions
• A mortar launcher located at a Gaza schoolyard
• Weapons found in civilian homes in Gaza
• Humanitarian aid being blockaded and stolen by Hamas before it reaches Gaza
• Mortar shells launched from the UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun

Facts Related to Israel’s Gaza Operation and the Goldstone Commission

• Video of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Press Conference, Aug. 11, 2009, on its report "The Operation in Gaza: Factual and Legal Aspects"
• Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: The Operation in Gaza - Factual and Legal Aspects
• NGO Monitor: The Goldstone “Fact Finding” Mission and the Role of Political NGOs
• UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict - Public Hearings

Experts for Comment (in Israel unless otherwise indicated)

Israeli Officials

U.S.-based

Jonathan Peled
Spokesman, Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C.
E-mail: sp@washington.mfa.gov.il

H.E. Gabriela Shalev
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations
Contact through spokeswoman Mirit Cohen at

miritc@newyork.mfa.gov.il

Israel-based

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich
Head of IDF International Media Branch

Yigal Palmor
Spokesman, Israeli Foreign Ministry
E-mail: palmor@mfa.gov.il

Legal Experts

Col. Richard Kemp (in the United Kingdom)
Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan
E-mail: richard.kemp@hotmail.co.uk

Dr. Avi Bell
Lecturer in international law and laws of war at Bar Ilan University

Lt.-Col. -Colonel (Res.) David Benjamin
Former senior legal adviser in the IDF Legal Department

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Amos Guiora (currently in the United States)
Professor of law at The S. J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
Former Lt. Col in the IDF Judge Advocate General's Corps, Legal Advisor to the Gaza Strip, Commander of the IDF School of Military Law and Judge Advocate for the Navy and Home Front Command
E-mail: guioraa@law.utah.edu

Reserve IDF Officers and Soldiers who Fought in Israel’s Defensive Operation in Gaza

Lt.-Col. (Res.) Bentzi Gruber
Deputy Brigade Commander in IDF Tank Corps

Maj. Idan Zuaretz
Company Commander in IDF Givati Brigade

Sgt. First Class (Res.) Gidon Rosenfeld (Givati Commando Unit)
E-mail: gidonr1@gmail.com

Sgt. First Class Haim Goldstein (Givati Commando Unit)
E-mail: gohaim@gmail.com

---

Footnotes

[1] “Remarks To the Press,” U.S. Department of State, Sept. 18, 2009, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/sept/129371.htm

[2] IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Dec. 19, 2008; “Iran-backed Terrorists in Gaza Kill 3, Wound Others in Continuing Rocket Attacks on Israel,” The Israel Project press release, Dec. 29, 2008, http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=hsJPK0PIJpH&b=3587015&content_id={4F0CF025-98BF-4875-A59B-B1F5E4B079F7}¬oc=1; Barzak, Ibrahim and Friedman, Matti, “Israel rejects truce call, pursues bombing Gaza,” Associated Press, Dec. 31, 2008, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95DQIEO0

[3] “Initial Response To Report Of The Fact Finding Mission On Gaza Established Pursuant To Resolution S-9/1 Of The Human Rights Council,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sept. 24, 2009, http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/FC985702-61C4-41C9-8B72-E3876FEF0ACA/0/GoldstoneReportInitialResponse240909.pdf

[4] “Initial Response To Report Of The Fact Finding Mission On Gaza Established Pursuant To Resolution S-9/1 Of The Human Rights Council,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sept. 24, 2009, http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/FC985702-61C4-41C9-8B72-E3876FEF0ACA/0/GoldstoneReportInitialResponse240909.pdf

[5] “Initial Response To Report Of The Fact Finding Mission On Gaza Established Pursuant To Resolution S-9/1 Of The Human Rights Council,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sept. 24, 2009, http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/FC985702-61C4-41C9-8B72-E3876FEF0ACA/0/GoldstoneReportInitialResponse240909.pdf

[6] “Initial Response To Report Of The Fact Finding Mission On Gaza Established Pursuant To Resolution S-9/1 Of The Human Rights Council,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sept. 24, 2009, http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/FC985702-61C4-41C9-8B72-E3876FEF0ACA/0/GoldstoneReportInitialResponse240909.pdf

[7] “Initial Response To Report Of The Fact Finding Mission On Gaza Established Pursuant To Resolution S-9/1 Of The Human Rights Council,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sept. 24, 2009, http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/FC985702-61C4-41C9-8B72-E3876FEF0ACA/0/GoldstoneReportInitialResponse240909.pdf

[8] “Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” Web site of the UN’s Human Rights Council, Sept. 15, 2009, p.174-182 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf

[9] “Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” Web site of the UN’s Human Rights Council, Sept. 15, 2009, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf; "The Operation in Gaza, 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009, Factual and Legal Aspects," Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, July 2009, p. 65, http://www.mfa.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/E89E699D-A435-491B-B2D0-017675DAFEF7/0/GazaOperationwLinks.pdf

[10] “Weapons in Gaza Mosque Struck by Israel Air Force 1 Jan. 2009,” Israel Defence Forces YouTube channel, Jan. 1, 2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwP_LusgPAw&feature=channel_page

---

The Israel Project is an international non-profit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel while promoting security, freedom and peace. The Israel Project provides journalists, leaders and opinion-makers accurate information about Israel. The Israel Project is not related to any government or government agency.

Technorati Tag: Goldstone Report.

Working At The UN Can Be Dangerous For Your Health

Marc Steyn notes some strange developments at the Iranian nuke talks:

A British nuclear expert has fallen to his death from the 17th floor of the United Nations offices in Vienna.

The 47-year-old man died after falling more than 120ft to the bottom of a stairwell. He has not been named.

He worked for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, an international agency charged with uncovering illicit nuclear tests.

A UN spokesman in the Austrian capital said there were no "suspicious circumstances" surrounding the man's death...

Four months ago another UN worker also believed to be British fell from a similar height in the same building, it has been reported.

Steyn recalls that there was another similar incident during Kofi Annan's term:

Hmm. I'd advise Mohammed El Baradei's surviving colleagues to take the elevator, but then again the aunt of Kofi Annan's discredited sidekick Benon Sevan fell to her death accidentally stepping into an empty elevator shaft shortly before she was due to be questioned about the Oil-for-Food scandal.

His advice: "If you work at the UN, get a gig on the ground floor."

Technorati Tag: UN and United Nations.

More Pro-Israel Than J Street--And It's A Palestinian Arab Group

Jennifer Rubin writes about responses she received in regards to her mention of American Task Force on Palestine and its president Ziad Asali as one of the groups that hate Israel.

She quotes Commentary contributor Josh Muravchik:

I have spent many hours in public forums and private conversations with Ziad Asali and the other two principle leaders of the ATFP, Hussein Ibish and Ghaith al-Omari. They are, in a sense, what we supporters of Israel have been seeking: a group of Arabs and Arab-Americans who are working for the creation of a Palestinian state but not for the destruction of Israel. Because they take seriously the idea of a two-state solution, they are more thoughtful about Israel’s security needs than is J Street, an organization that is unrelentingly hostile to Israel.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow of AFTP, wrote to Rubin

The founding mission of ATFP is to promote the idea that a negotiated end of conflict agreement resulting in two states—Israel and Palestine —living side-by-side in peace and security is in the American national interest. Moreover, we strongly agree with both Pres. George W. Bush and Pres. Barack Obama that such a peace agreement is in the interests of Israel, the Palestinians and our own country. These positions are clearly reflected in all our public statements and are amply represented on our website www.americantaskforce.org).

This has been recognized throughout the foreign policy community in the United States and elsewhere. For example, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), who is both a staunch supporter of Israel and the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, sent a letter addressed to Dr. Asali on the occasion of our Fourth Annual Gala that was held in Washington on Oct. 15, which I had the privilege of reading from the podium, and which reads in part:

“I want you to know how much I, as Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, value my association with you and your colleagues at ATFP. Your integrity, your knowledge of the issues, and your unswervingly principled stand on behalf of peace and fairness — as well as your deep commitment both to the land of your birth, Palestine, and your adopted homeland, America — have all had a powerfully positive impact on discourse in Washington about the Middle East. You and your colleagues have also been an important influence on my own thinking about Middle East peacemaking and that of many of my colleagues in the Congress.”

Let's hope that these impressions are accurate.

Rubin concludes:

This of course only serves to emphasize just how extreme and counterproductive ( if the real goal is a strong Israel and improved Israeli-Palestinian relations) are the positions of the J Street crowd.

Of course, that still leaves the question: what exactly does American Task Force on Palestine see in J Street?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: American Task Force on Palestine and J Street.

Counter-Terrorism vs Women's Rights?

In an effort to properly address the issue of terrorism, the UN has appointed a 'Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism'--Martin Scheinin--who has been making regular reports to the UN about the importance of keeping human rights in mind while fighting terrorism. Scheinin has even gone so far as to address the apparent conflict between counter-terrorism and 'diverse sexual orientations and gender identities'. The summary of a report he gave on August 3 notes:

Consistent with the mandate of the Special Rapporteur as defined by the Human Rights Council, section III offers an analysis of counter-terrorism measures from a gender perspective. This report expands upon earlier reports of the Special Rapporteur to provide a comprehensive overview of the frequency and nature of gender-based human rights abuses in counter-terrorism measures and to explore the complex relationship between gender equality and countering terrorism. While many of the measures discussed in the report relate to the human rights of women, gender is not synonymous with women, and, instead, encompasses the social constructions that underlie how women’s and men’s roles, functions and responsibilities, including in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, are understood. The report therefore discusses, besides the human rights of women, the gendered impact of counter-terrorism measures on men and persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, and addresses how gender intersects with other prohibited grounds of discrimination, such as race and religion. [emphasis added]

Understandably, this report caught the eye of the Washington Times, which came out with an editorial on this last week:

Do counter-terrorism measures targeting bombers who dress as women offend the rights of transexuals? This is one of the pressing questions addressed in a new United Nations report on "Protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism."

The 23-page document is the ultimate politically correct guide to combating terrorism. It is based on the work of U.N. special rapporteur Martin Scheinin, who notes that "immigration controls that focus attention on male bombers who may be dressing as females to avoid scrutiny make transgender persons susceptible to increased harassment and suspicion." The impact on transvestites (cross-dressers) and "intersex" individuals (those in the midst of a sex change) is even more dramatic.

...The politically correct U.N. report is remarkable in its thoroughness. Extraordinary rendition is a process of grabbing terrorists off the street and packing them off to a different country for prosecution or interrogation. The report notes the adverse effects of extraordinary rendition on the wives of terrorists and its impairment of their enjoyment of "the right to adequate housing, and the right to family life."

Presumably rendition is an occupational hazard of being a professional terrorist; if the wife, husband or "life partner" of the bad guy is inconvenienced because the breadwinner suddenly vanishes, we counsel next time marrying an accountant.

...The U.N. report explicitly argues for a return to the previous failed framework, recommending that states "abandon the use of a "war paradigm" when countering terrorism because of the "adverse impacts" it has on "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals."

I suppose with all of this emphasis on gender rights, it is to be expected that this issue made its way into the Goldstone Commission Report on Gaza, which notes in paragraph 937 and 938 of the Report:

The right to adequate food is also reflected in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which requires State parties to guarantee to women “adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.”

The Mission finds that, as a result of its actions to destroy food and water supplies and infrastructure, Israel has violated article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 11 of the International Covenant if Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 12 (2) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. [emphasis added]

Whatever one may argue pro and con regarding the first 2 Covenants, is it possible that defending ones self against terrorist actually impinges upon gender discrimination?

In its rebuttal of the Goldstone Report, CAMERA responds to this claim:

This interpretation of the Convention is, prima facie, a travesty of the Convention's intent. The first article of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women defines "discrimination against women" as

any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. (emphasis added)

The idea that Israel's strikes on food and water-related infrastructure, or anything else in Gaza, were "made on the basis of sex" in order to specifically distinguish, exclude or restrict women from their right to equality is simply outlandish.

But a variation on this outlandish theme has found its way, albeit diluted and convoluted, into a New York Times op-ed, discussing reversals in the gains made by women over the years:

Part of the reason can be traced to the aftermath of 9/11.

Everyone’s life was reshaped by 9/11. Like many New Yorkers, I experienced that day in an intensely personal way: I was in the World Trade Center with a colleague when the first plane hit. And we were just outside the second tower, making our way through burning debris, hunks of airplane seats and far worse when the second plane came in directly over our heads.

In the aftermath of the attacks, Americans pulled together. Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, famously declared it was “the end of the age of irony.”

He was right.

And then he was wrong. Because, as so often happens in the wake of a traumatic event, the pendulum swung to the other extreme. The war in Iraq tore America apart. The Internet gave everyone a soapbox. The louder, the more offensive, the better.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that exactly at this moment, women began losing ground — and not just in measurable ways, like how many women make partner or get jobs as chief executives.

I’m referring to how we are perceived. The conversation online about women, as about so many other topics, degenerated from silly and snarky to just plain ugly — and it seeped into the mainstream. [emphasis added]

Jennifer Rubin's response echo's CAMERA's response to the Goldstone Report:

Let’s be clear (one of us should be): 9-11 was responsible for ending the lives of many women in fiery infernos and leaving their widowers and children grieving. Only in that sense was it “bad for women.” (But really, had the plaintiffs’ bar only known Ms. Lipman’s theory, we might have had a really innovative class-action gender-claim against al-Qaeda.)

The issue of pursuing gender equality in the midst of the war on terror is a distraction in the hands of the UN just as it is a distortion in the pages of the Goldstone Report--and it is beginning to seep into our thinking.

The fact is that there is a war on terrorism, and it is not isolated to one part of the globe.
Try focusing on that.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Israel and UN and Goldstone Commission Report.