Israel and West Bank Palestinians have responded to the UN’s Goldstone report which accused both of them of war crimes during Israel’s Gaza operation.
BBC NEWS
January 29, 2010
The Israeli defence minister said there was no army as “responsible… moral and accurate…even under impossible conditions,” as Israel.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN said a high-level commission had been set up to investigate war crime claims.
The UN secretary general is to report early next month on any further steps.
The UN General Assembly has demanded that both Israel and Hamas launch independent investigations into their conduct during the 22-day Israeli operation which began in December 2008.
When Secretary General Ban Ki-moon make his own recommendations for further action in early February, he is not expected to advocate a process leading to international criminal trials, as proposed by South African judge Richard Goldstone.
A former international war crimes prosecutor, Mr Goldstone investigated the offensive, and said crimes had been committed on both sides.
He accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure during the conflict, in which human rights groups say about 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died. …
Can the United Nations solve a problem it created? Read the “History of Israel and Palestine: 1947 UN Partition Proposal” here.
It is not too unusual for the actions of countries and organizations to produce unintended results. But when those results turn into a calamity, the leadership of the country or organization is questioned.
Today there are Palestinians but no Palestine. Palestine died in 1948. Palestine died after Israel was born. Was the death of Palestine related to the birth of Israel? Yes – directly related. The French newspaper Le Monde examines the expulsion of the Palestinians here.
The United Nations, ostensibly designed to be a positive influence on mankind, may have missed its mark – by a wide margin in the birth of Israel.
Actually the United Nations, using power(GUNS) missing from the League of Nations, stole half of Palestine for the Jews. Once the Jews gained traction in their half of Palestine, Jewish terrorists drove the Palestinians from their half. And while they were at it, the Jewish terrorists also drove the United Nations out of what was “destined” to become Israel. The Palestinians, defenseless against the well armed Jewish terrorists, were on their own.
Middle East Palestinians paid the price for what Europeans did to the Jewish population. And in the end, more or less, Adolf Hitler got his wish of removing a sizeable contingent of the Jewish population out of Europe. A Jewish problem in Europe became a Jewish problem in the Middle East.
Solving a problem and relocating a problem are not the same. The United Nations must have realized that. Israel had to be strong to maintain a hold on land, stolen for it in 1948. Strong countries have a nuclear deterrent.
While the Arab world is watched, threatened and otherwise warned about obtaining nuclear weapons, Israel has been remarkably left alone. And that, perhaps, is another “nail” in the coffin of the United Nations concept of a fair and peaceful world. Mottos and mission statements not withstanding, the grave-yard that contains the remains of the League of Nations may now be beckoning to the United Nations.
Can the United Nations solve the problem it created in 1948? NO. That problem has caused many deaths of both Palestinian and Jews. And once death is attained, it is irreversible. But removing hope for the future is a very sad state of affairs after suffering 60 years of hostilities. And at this point, there appears to be only more of the same in store.
And the saddest death of all is the death of “the rule of law”. The “rule of law” is the structure which holds a civilized country and indeed the world together. The worst offenders of the rule of law, in the United States, have been removed from power. Perhaps, that will bring hope for the future. America’s neocons, in search of terrorists, rode rough-shod over the United Nations rules.
Tags: goldstone report, targetting civilians, United Nations, west bank palestinians
