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Photo by: IDF SpokespersonIDF chief says army began investigating itself before "we heard of Goldstone."IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi described the Goldstone Report as flawed and deceitful, and objected to the formation of an independent commission to investigate IDF officers and commanders.Speaking to a forum of senior members of the general staff, the IDF chief said that “immediately following Operation Cast Lead we began to investigate ourselves in order to learn and to reach conclusions. We did this even before we heard of the name Goldstone. We are investigating and interrogating for ourselves and not for anyone...

The Goldstone Report is, unfortunately, once again in the news day in and day out. The usual media outlets and organizations who work to demonize and delegitimize Israel are once again treating it as a statement of fact rather than a biased and one sided political propaganda piece. This despite the fact that the Obama administration condemned the report as, in the words of U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell, "one-sided and deeply flawed". The critics of Israel never mention, as a Miami Herald editorial did, that Operation Cast Lead followed "eight years of relentless rocket attacks...

Just imagine if after the post-September 11th US attack on Afghanistan the UN interviewed Taliban and al-Qaida supporters who told lots of lies about the US just to provide propaganda to de-legitimize America. What if the UN "investigators" cherry-picked the stories which made the US look like a war criminal and the terrorists as the victims. And Imagine if the UN published a report based on those tall tales, and called for the US to be punished as a war criminal. That is what happened to Israel. After suffering years of terrorist attacks at the hands of Hamas terrorists, the...

The Obama administration keeps making big mistakes that have a devastating effect on its own goals and interests. What is most amazing is how the implications of its actions are just not understood. Already, the current US policy has destroyed any chance not only of progress on the Israel-Palestinian front but of even holding talks at all. Let's review the situation. Israel announced in 1993, at the time of the Oslo Accords with the PLO, that it viewed construction on existing settlements as completely in line with the agreement. The Palestinians, during the ensuing 16 years, never made this a...

In 2000, I was asked by the Israel Defense Forces to join a group of philosophers, lawyers, and generals for the purpose of drafting the army's ethics code. Since then, I have been deeply involved in the analysis of the moral issues that Israel faces in its war on terrorism. I have spent many hours in discussions with soldiers and officers in order to better grasp the dilemmas that they tackle in the field, and in an attempt to help facilitate the internalization of the code of ethics in war. It was no wonder that, when the Goldstone Report on...

The Ethics of War Sarah Carlsruh, November 4, 2009 The U.N. Human Rights Council released a September report on their fact-finding mission on Gaza, often referred to as the Goldstone Report because Justice Richard Goldstone headed the mission. This report’s goal, it stated, was to “investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed” militarily during the winter 2008-2009 Gaza War. However, on September 16th Israel President Shimon Peres responded that it “makes a mockery of history.” Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Reserve Colonel Bentzi Gruber agreed with President Peres at an October...

Founded "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war," today's United Nations is instead laying the groundwork for war galore. In the name of "justice," the U.N. handicaps democracies trying to defend themselves against tyrants and terrorists. That's the bottom line of the so-called Goldstone report, ... ... From this exercise Goldstone emerged to accuse Israel of "reprisals" and "collective punishments" and "war crimes." He also criticized "armed groups" in Gaza (where the major "armed group"--terrorist Hamas--runs the enclave). But in the U.N. universe, that is a nod to the appearance of impartiality, of no real relevance to action....

The Report by Ari Bussel “What many could not understand was how an army which even some German generals considered the strongest in Europe could be defeated so quickly and easily. So staggering were the losses – 90,000 dead, 200,000 wounded, more than one and a half million taken prisoner – …” This is the story of France in 1939 (as told by Don & Petie Kladstrup in 2002). “The most important arena where we need to act … is in the arena of public opinion, which is crucial in the democratic world. We must continue to debunk this lie...

A Palestinian Authority official has admitted that while the PA has been urging the International Criminal Court (ICC) to pursue war crimes charges against IDF troops, the only evidence the PA has been able to supply is the Goldstone panel's report, which was approved by the United Nations Human Rights Commission last week. PA Justice Minister Ali Al-Khashan said Saturday that anyone expecting quick action by the court on the alleged Israeli war crimes needed to "have patience," because "we do not have any documentation for the Israeli crimes." He said that the PA was hoping to join the ICC...

Suppose a United Nations investigation team found that the United States had committed war crimes in its response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The report finds that while al Qaeda may have been culpable for the attacks and the carnage they wreaked, America was equally to blame - if not more so - for the civilian deaths caused during Operation Enduring Freedom. The U.N. instructs the United States to conduct an internal investigation and punish the perpetrators, or face action from the International Criminal Court.

On September 15, 2009, the Gaza Fact-Finding Mission headed by Justice Goldstone released a 575-page report in which it analyzed the military actions during Operation Cast Lead, also known as the Gaza war of December-January 2008-2009. The report has been criticized as being one-sided, out of context, and unprofessional. Presented here are studies which address both the report and Israeli actions in Gaza. In addition, critical, introspective editorials and selected news articles are offered.

Should the Palestinian Authority (PA) be the main advocate pushing acceptance of the bizarre Goldstone report in order to demonize Israel at the UN or might it just stand aside and let a couple of dozen Arab and Muslim-majority states take the lead? This is—or should be—a minor issue but it has blown up to once again push the main reality of the Arab-Israeli conflict into everyone’s face. When the U.S. government asked the PA not to be the main sponsors of demanding UN sanctions against Israel, the Palestinian leadership agreed for a few hours. But then, unable to resist...

Repentance by Ari Bussel The year is 5770, 2009 in the general count. The day is the tenth of the Month of Tishrei, the Jewish Day of Atonement. It is a day of reflection, a day in which broken promises, wrong deeds and language spoken in haste are being erased, forgiven, forgotten, and a new year begins. But can we forget? The world stood by uninterested when, for eight years, residents of a small city near the Gaza border could not rest. During the day, their children playing outside or at school were unprotected from a constant rockets bombardment. During...

Just imagine if after the post-September 11th US attack on Afghanistan, the UN interviewed Taliban and al-Qaida supporters who told lots of lies about the US just to de-legitimize America and to make us look like a war criminal and the terrorists as the victims. And Imagine if the UN published a report based on those tall tales, and called for the US to be punished as a war criminal. That is just what happened to Israel. After suffering years of terrorist attacks at the hands of Hamas terrorists,the United Nations sent South African Judge Richard Goldstone on a fact-finding...

Looking at the latest high-profile “report” from the United Nations on the recent war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, it’s not difficult to understand why the vast majority of Americans harbor deep distrust of the international body. Though the UN has a disturbing history of cozying up to thugs and tyrants—each dictator has an vote in the General Assembly equal to the United States—it is the international body’s unrelenting obsession with Israel that reveals its moral bankruptcy. Genuine massacres in Sudan and Rwanda or ongoing brutality in Burma and North Korea elicit barely a yawn at the UN. But...

Richard Maize Creates Websites To Refute UN Israel Gaza Goldstone Report (photo) As Hamas attacks Israel from Gaza with terror suicide bombers and over 8,000 rockets while hiding behind children, the UN Goldstone Report equates Israel with Hamas. By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Tel Aviv, Israel ---- September 18, 2009 ..... The Richard Maize Foundation has taken to the defense of Israel and human rights by creating numerous information Websites to address the biased UN Goldstone Report on the Israel Gaza war. "When the UN Goldstone Report was released anyone could see that it was highly biased, one sided,...

The Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza ConflictThe title of the so-called "Goldstone Report" tells you what the UN "fact finders" were looking for. They couldn't completely ignore the years of increasingly long-range and accurate Hamas rockets and mortars terrorizing nearly a million Israelis and couldn't completely ignore Hamas's use of civilians as shields, so next best was to equate aggressor and defender, arsonist and fireman. With excruciating evenhandedness, "the mission concluded that actions amounting to war crimes and possibly in some respect crimes against humanity were committed by the Israel Defense Forces." At the...

Just imagine if after the post-September 11th US attack on Afghanistan, the UN interviewed Taliban and al-Qaida supporters who told lots of lies about the US just to de-legitimize America and to make us look like a war criminal and the terrorists as the victims. And Imagine if the UN published a report based on those tall tales, and called for the US to be punished as a war criminal. That is just what happened to Israel. After suffering years of terrorist attacks at the hands of Hamas terrorists,the United Nations sent South African Judge Richard Goldstone on a fact-finding...