Debate On The U.N. Gaza War Crimes Report. Pt3 Questions & Answers (good); Pt1 Goldstone; Pt 2 Dore Gold responds;

By Justice Richard Goldstone and former Israeli ambassador Dore Gold

Packed house hears Justice Richard Goldstone, whose name has become synonymous with the U.N. Human Rights Council's fact-finding report on the conflict, engage in a public forum with a senior Israeli political figure over widespread criticism of the report among supporters of Israel.

"Let me be absolutely clear," Goldstone said. "International law allows, and indeed requires, Israel to defend its citizens. Hamas and others committed serious war crimes against the citizens of southern Israel…. " However, he said, there is evidence that Israel's policy in the latest fighting was to direct its military might against civilians and civilian infrastructure as a way of deterring future rocket attacks, a policy he said "completely undermines the foundations of international law."

Justice Richard Goldstone

...The hostile comments here and elsewhere on Goldstone's painfully honest and even-handed report amaze me. The holocaust created by the Nazi regime is universally condemned. Why should the remarkably similar Shoa created in Gaza by the Israeli regime be regarded differently?...
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Goldstone is full of it and he knows it when he states, "Let me be absolutely clear. International law allows, and indeed requires, Israel to defend its citizens. [...] Israel's policy in the latest fighting was to direct its military might against civilians and civilian infrastructure as a way of deterring future rocket attacks".

Let me be absolutely clear Mr. Goldstone. International law allows, and indeed requires, Hamas and every Palestinian to defend themselves and their citizens; Israelis committed serious war crimes against the citizens of all of Palestine who are under occupation and are being bombed routinely in open concentration camps, starved and deprived of basic necessities.

This aggression against Palestinians was planned long before the Israeli assault, during which time there were no "rocket" attacks. So, this excuse by Goldstone that this assault by Israel was "a way of deterring future rocket attacks" is rubbish. Hamas wanted to extend the cease-fire but Israel refused because it was ready for the assault, hoping to get rid of Hamas and Palestinians altogether.

Israel has always directed its military might and its mercenary squatters "against civilians and civilian infrastructure", not because it is trying to defter any rocket attacks as Goldstone claims but because it wants to reduce the number of Palestinians in the region so that they would all be gone as a final solution to gobble up all of Palestine. If Palestinians do not die fast enough as a result of starvation, diseases and illnesses forced upon them, Israel will bomb them. It is easier to demolish by bombing the entire Palestinian houses and infrastructure with Palestinians in them than to bulldoze one house at a time.
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Veronica | 11.14.09 - 2:03 pm | #