In September, 2009, the Goldstone Report on the Israeli attack on Gaza was issued. While the Report was praised in most of the world as impartial and thorough, it was not greeted the same way in the U.S., where U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice declared: “We have very serious concerns about many recommendations in the report,” and State Department spokesman Ian Kelly elaborated: “Although the report covers both sides of the conflict, it focuses overwhelmingly on Israel’s actions.” According to Ha’aretz, Rice also pledged to “stand by Israel in the fight against the Goldstone report.”
So what kind of report would please the skeptical Obama Administration? We just got our answer, when Israel’s Turkel Commission released its findings on Israel’s attack on the Gaza flotilla last May 31. The Commission found that Israel had done nothing wrong, and its report immediately won rave reviews from the U.S., where. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley announced that Washington had been “supportive of this effort by Israel, and there has been a –– we think that this is an independent report, credible and impartial and transparent investigation that has been undertaken by Israel.” In fact, the investigation was so “transparent” that Alex Kane saw through it when the Commission first was formed in June 2010.
Remember when the Bush Administration could be counted upon to take the wrong position on virtually everything? Plus ca change . . .
