The Israeli p.r. disaster that was the Gaza slaughter is being compounded 9 months on by the country’s scorn for the U.N. commission report holding that both sides committed war crimes. Haaretz says that Israel is mounting an international effort to nullify the Goldstone commission’s report–out of fear that the country could end up in the dock at the Hague. JTA says Israel will dispense with the report with one line of spin:
"The same U.N. that allows the president of a country to announce on a podium its aspiration to destroy the State of Israel has no right to teach us about morality," Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said, referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"We did not want to cooperate with the commission from the beginning, because its mandate has always been one-sided," said Shalev. "The Human Rights Council is known as a body constantly critical of Israel."We knew the report would be biased and one-sided, but did not imagine that it would be so harsh," she added.
So much for the deaths of hundreds of civilians who could not even flee. The U.N. doesn’t count. On PBS’s News Hour, Gwen Ifill repeatedly challenged Justice Richard Goldstone’s fairness, rather than focusing on the allegation of war crimes. This tack began with Ifill’s statement, "Different accounts place the number of Palestinian casualties at or around 1,400, including an undetermined number of civilians."
Well that’s not helpful. B’tselem lately said, 320 minors and 111 women. More:
GWEN IFILL: The term "even-handed" is the problem that Israel has with the conclusions in the report. Your criticism of Israel seems so much harsher than that of the Palestinians. Why is that?…
[Later] GWEN IFILL: Did your investigation lead you to conclude that there are individuals who should be held culpable either on the Israeli or the Palestinian side of this?
Goldstone seemed surprised by that. He doesn’t investigate individuals. He was investigating the overall conduct of the war.
Well, that wasn’t part of our mandate. We looked into the question as to whether violations, war crimes, violations of human rights law were committed. It would be up to a criminal investigator, a prosecutor, hopefully in Israel, hopefully in the Gaza, to look into the question of individual guilt. That wasn’t part of our agenda.
Remarks a friend: So corroded are the legitamoid brains of the MSM by American
protocol of denial, "a few bad apples" on Guantanamo/Abu Ghraib/Haditha, that
she was surprised to note his incredulity and hardly seemed able to register
his answer: governments are responsible for acts they order in time of war.
And who did the NewsHour bring on for fairness-and-balance, against Goldstone?
Michael Oren, ambassador to the U.S.. Israel vs. the United Nations. That was how they had it scored. The voice of a Palestinian was never heard.
