Israel & the Goldstone Report Need to Know:
Damned if you do – damned if you don’t!

 

The media siege of Israel has been felt everywhere this summer: it is no secret that the "lynch" syndrome and the Durban syndrome, with its hateful messages, are part and parcel of the same relentless escalating process to vilify and delegitimize Israel.

 

Please find below information from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with selected hands-on links received from different sources, and the latest statement from Israeli statesman par excellence, President Shimon Peres, which has been inserted into the MFA circular.

 

Shana Tova,

Gila

From: Israel MFA Online [mailto:feedback@mofa.gov.il]
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 5:48 PM

Gaza Facts website launched

The Operation against Hamas in  Gaza: The Israeli Perspective

 

On December 27, 2008, after enduring an 8-year-long barrage of 12,000 rockets and having exhausted all other options, Israel launched a military operation against Hamas in Gaza.

 

Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched a special website  http://www.mfa.gov.il/GAZAFACTS which provides factual information addressing the legal and political context of the conflict in Gaza, the issue of Gaza war crimes, the issue of human rights and the investigations into the Israeli military conduct during combat.

 

The website discusses various issues relating to the Israeli military operation undertaken by the Israel Defense Force (IDF), better known as "Operation Cast Lead" or "The Gaza Operation" in December 2008-January 2009.

 

•  FAQ: Gaza Operation Report - Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

•  Report: The Operation in Gaza - Factual and Legal Aspects

•  Operation Cast Lead: Israel strikes back against Hamas terror in Gaza Dec 2008-Jan 2009

 

 

President Peres' reply to the Goldstone Commission Report
(Communicated by President's Spokesperson(

 

"Those in pursuit of peace have justice on their side. Those who monger war will forever be criminals."

"Goldstone Commission report is a mockery of history”

 

The Goldstone Commission report is a mockery of history. It fails to distinguish between the aggressor and a state exercising its right for self defense.

 

War itself is a crime. The aggressor is the criminal. The side exercising self-defense has no other alternative.

The Hamas terrorist organization has opened war and perpetrated other horrible crimes. For years, Hamas carried out attacks against the children of Israel, sending suicide bombers into city centers, injuring and killing civilians. They fired over 12,000 rockets and mortar shells at towns and villages with one clear aim - to kill innocent civilians.

 

The report legitimizes terrorist activity, the pursuit of murder and death. The report disregards the duty and right of self defense, held by every sovereign state as enshrined in the UN Charter.

 

Israel withdrew all of its troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip, opened the border crossings and actively supported its reconstruction. The Israeli presence in Gaza was terminated.

But after Israel completed its redeployment from Gaza, a murderous and illegitimate terror group violently revolted against the legitimate Fatah leadership, overthrowing it by force.

Hamas operatives murdered Fatah leaders, at times throwing them from rooftops in broad daylight.

 

While Hamas continued firing, Israel employed, time and time again, the diplomatic channels, including many appeals to the UN – in an attempt to bring about a cessation of rocket fire.

Israel redeployed and terminated its presence in Gaza. Hamas responded with incessant rocket fire aimed at killing children, women and innocent civilians. Instead of building Gaza and caring for the welfare of its citizens, Hamas built tunnels to attack Israel, cruelly using children and innocent Palestinians to hide terrorists and ammunition.

 

Hamas terrorists built rocket launching pads and storage facilities near schools, in mosques and kindergartens. They booby-trapped urban neighborhoods and used Palestinian children as human-shields in order to hide terrorists and war materiel.

The State of Israel was forced to defend itself. It acted out of obligation to its citizens, like any sister state in the family of nations would.

 

Israel has been criticized for its actions against Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon and Hamas attacks from the Gaza Strip, as well as for building the security barrier in the West Bank to prevent suicide bombers from entering the country.

This criticism did not stop the rockets from hitting the South and the North, nor did it stop terrorists from blowing themselves up in our central cities. IDF operations enabled economic prosperity in the West Bank, relieved southern Lebanese citizens from the terror of Hezbollah and have enabled Gazans to have normal lives again.

 

Those in pursuit of peace have justice on their side. Those who monger war will forever be criminals.

Members of the commission would have never compiled such a report if their children resided in Sderot and suffered the terrorism of daily rocket fire.

 

Israel's Analysis and Comments on the
GAZA FACT FINDING MISSION REPORT

(Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson)

 

General:

 

·        Israel is appalled and disappointed by the Report published on 15 September 2009 by the Gaza Fact Finding Mission. The Report effectively ignores Israel's right of self defense, makes unsubstantiated claims about its intent and challenges Israel's democratic values and rule of law.

 

·        At the same time the Report all but ignores the deliberate strategy of Hamas of operating within and behind the civilian population and turning densely populated areas into an arena of battle. By turning a blind eye to such tactics it effectively rewards them.

 

·        The Report barely disguises its goal of instigating a political campaign against Israel, and in its recommendations seeks to involve the Security Council, the General Assembly the International Criminal Court, the Human Rights Council, and the entire international community in such a campaign.

 

The Mandate of the Mission:

 

·        The one-sided mandate of the Gaza Fact Finding Mission, and the resolution established it, gave serious reasons for concern both to Israel and to the many states on the Council which refused to support it - including the member states of the European Union, Switzerland, Canada, Korea and Japan.

 

·        It also troubled many distinguished individuals, including former High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, who refused invitations to head the Mission and admitted that it was "guided not by human rights but by politics".

 

The Conduct of the Mission:

 

·        These concerns were exacerbated by the conduct of the Mission itself, including reports in the Palestinian media that, throughout its visits to Gaza, it was continuously accompanied by Hamas officials and its refusal to recuse members of the mission with clear political views on the issues under investigation. One mission member signed a letter to the Sunday Times saying that Israel's actions against Hamas attacks were acts of "aggression not self-defense", prejudging the investigation before it had even begun.

 

·        The unprecedented holding of telecast hearings also gave cause for concern. The fact that all the witnesses were prescreened and selected, and none were asked questions relating to any Palestinian terrorist activity or the location of weaponry and terrorists in civilian areas only supports concerns that they were part of an orchestrated political campaign.

 

A "non-judicial" document:

 

·        Justice Goldstone as Head of the Mission repeatedly insisted that the Mission was not a judicial inquiry and so "could not reach judicial conclusions". On this basis that he justified the inclusion of partisan mission members, admitting that their involvement "would not be appropriate for a judicial inquiry'. The Report however is highly judicial in nature, reaching conclusive judicial determinations of guilt, and including 'detailed legal findings' even in the absence of the sensitive intelligence information which Israel did not feel able to provide. These determinations are made notwithstanding the Report's admission that it does "pretend to reach the standard of proof applicable in criminal trials".

 

Elements Ignored by the Report:

 

·        The Report all but ignores the deliberate terrorist strategy of operating in the heart of densely populated civilian areas which dictated the arena of battle.  Even when the Hamas terrorists mixed among civilians, the Report rejects the notion that there was an intention to put the civilian population at risk.

 

·        Astonishingly, despite the many widely reported instances in the international press of the abuse of civilian facilities by terrorist groups, and the statements of Hamas own leaders praising women and children who acted as human shields, the Report repeatedly stated that it could find no evidence of such activities. This, even despite its admission that those interviewed were "reluctant to speak about the presence or conduct of hostilities by the Palestinian armed groups".

 

·        The Report also ignores Israel's extensive efforts, even in the midst of fighting, to maintain humanitarian standards. While it does, reluctantly, acknowledge Israel's "significant efforts" to issue warnings before attacks, it does not find any of these efforts to be effective

 

·        While the Report passes judgment against Israel in respect of almost any allegation, it seeks to absolve the Hamas of almost any wrongdoing. The word "terrorist" is almost entirely absent. Soldier Gilad Shalit, now held incommunicado in captivity for over three years, was "captured during an enemy incursion" and the Hamas members that the Mission met with in Gaza are thanked as the "Gaza authorities" for extending their full cooperation and support to the Mission.

 

·        Even the thousands of rocket attacks against Israelis which necessitated the Gaza Operation are given the most cursory treatment, and indeed the Report indirectly blames Israel even for these by terming them "'reprisals".

 

Rejection of democratic values:

 

·        In a Report which relies so heavily on Israeli human rights organizations and which also petitions on sensitive security issues to Israel's Supreme Court the Report devotes considerable attention to "repression of dissent in Israel". It bases this assertion in large part on the widespread support for the military operation in the Israeli public, assuming that Israel has "created a political climate in which dissent is not tolerated. The notion that the majority of Israelis genuinely supported action to bring years of continuous rocket and missile attacks against Israeli civilians to an end does not appear to have occurred to the members of the Mission.  

 

·        The Report is also critical of Israel internal investigations even though these compare favorably to investigations of allegations in military matters in most western countries, and have regularly resulted in criminal investigations and convictions.

 

Recommendations:

 

·        The Report's recommendations are as one-sided as its findings. It seeks to harness the Human Rights Council, the Security Council the General Assembly, the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court and the international community as parts of its hostile political campaign.

 

·        Despite token recommendations in respect of the Palestinian side, all the international pressure is directed solely against Israel.

 

·        The true test of such a Report can only be whether in future conflicts it will have the effect of increasing or decreasing respect for the rule of law. Regrettably a one-sided report of this nature, claiming to represent international law, can only weaken the standing of law in future conflicts. At the same time, it will broadcast a deeply troubling message to terrorist groups wherever they are that the cynical tactics of seeking to exploit civilian suffering for political ends actually pays dividends.

  

Selected External Links update:

 

 

Crime Against Humanity: Human Rights Organizations Became The Problem Of Human Rights, Ben-Dror Yemini, Maariv, 21. 8. 2009

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AWXYV56qlacKZGdwYzRoYzlfMTMzaG5mamJ3Y2o&hl=en  

 

The Goldstone Mission - Tainted to the core, Irwin Cotler

Part I (16Aug09) : http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418620191&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter   

Part II (18Aug09) :  http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418640232&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter  

 

 Analysis: Goldstone's kangaroo court report Sep. 15, 2009 Gerald Steinberg

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804578791&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull  

 

Experts or Ideologues? A Systematic Analysis of HRW’s Focus on Israel,

Executive Summary (English), NGO Monitor, September 08, 2009

Executive Summary:

http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/experts_or_ideologues_a_systematic_analysis_of_hrw_s_focus_on_israel_executive_summary_english_   [copy and paste this link]

Full Report (PDF Version): http://www.ngo-monitor.org/hrw.pdf  

 

Palestinian "Policemen" Killed in Gaza Operation Were Trained Terrorists,

Jonathan D. Halevi on www.jcpa.org,15 September 2009

 

The Moral Inversion of Richard Goldstone, Melanie Philips, The Spectator, 17 September 2009

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/5334541/the-moral-inversion-of-richard-goldstone.thtml