The report stunned even seasoned Israeli diplomats who expected no quarter from an inquiry set up by the United Nations Human Rights Council, which they believe to be deeply biased against Israel. They expected the military operation to be condemned as grossly disproportionate. They expected Israel to be lambasted for not taking sufficient care to avoid civilian casualties. But they never imagined that the report would accuse the Jewish state of intentionally aiming at civilians.
Israelis believe that their army did not deliberately kill the hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including children, who died during “Operation Cast Lead.” They believe, therefore, that Israel is not culpable, morally or criminally, for these civilian deaths, which were collateral to the true aim of the operation — killing Hamas gunmen.
When does negligence become recklessness, and when does recklessness slip into wanton callousness, and then into deliberate disregard for innocent human life?
But that is the point — and it should have been the focus of the investigation. Judge Goldstone’s real mandate was, or should have been, to bring Israel to confront this fundamental question, a question inherent in the waging of war by all civilized societies against irregular armed groups. Are widespread civilian casualties inevitable when a modern army pounds terrorist targets in a heavily populated area with purportedly smart ordnance? Are they acceptable? Does the enemy’s deployment in the heart of the civilian area shift the line between right and wrong, in morality and in law?
And this is also where the failure to distinguish between Hamas and the IDF is best seen. Hamas did, does and always targets civilians. Israel has a history of attempting to avoid civilian casualties, even if it can be accused of sometimes disregarding that concern. And so the conclusion vis a vis Hamas is no surprise, they are, after all, a recognized terrorist group. But the conclusion vis a vis Israel is a major political tool for the enemies of Israel, the hardliners who like to call Israel a genocidal, killer state. Whenever they come up with their next conspiracy theory, they will back it up with the claim, now kosherized by this UN kangaroo court, that Israel targets Palestinian civilians.
Regards,
DKW
The whole thing was a POLITICAL enterprise from the modus operandi of the Council who started it to the report itself and so basically flawed. It will die the death it deserves but probably not soon enough.
ReplyDeleteY'know, I've been reluctant to claim the Goldstone report biased. On the one hand, given the UN's propensity for always focusing on Israel well out of proportion to the "sins" of other countries, people have every right to be suspicious.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, we cannot assume that every investigative body that looks into this is "out to get" Israel.
Nonetheless, I have a hard time getting away from the fact that Christine Chinkin, a high level member of the Goldstone commission, concluded that Israel had committed war crimes even prior to the investigation.
In this letter, dated January 11, 2009, and co-signed by Chinkin, they write:
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is not self-defence – it’s a war crime.
How can one avoid concluding bias when the investigators had already determined guilt even prior to the investigation?
It makes no sense, whatsoever.
You can't avoid the conclusion Karma. And it's a lot easier if you look at the political aspect as being the driver rather than actual legal concerns. Viewed in that way it all becomes a lot clearer what the agenda has always been.
ReplyDeleteWell, nobody likes to see war. Nobody is happy to see innocent people killed. Nonetheless, I tend to view this whole thing as part of what Dershowitz called the "CNN strategy."
ReplyDeleteThat is, the purpose of all those rocket attacks was to get Israel to militarily retaliate and then scream to all the world about the brutality of the "occupying power."
Then, of course, we get people on Daily Kos (dupes) jumping up and down about how mean Israel is and politically driven UN commissions, like this one.
It's transparent, but effective.