COMPARE ASSAD OF SYRIA AND NETANYAHU OF ISRAEL

Compare Bashar al Assad's procedures with those of Bib Netanyahu.  Both claim they are fighting armed terrorists.  Both order their war planes to bomb homes of civilians, killing scores of men, women and children.  Both engage in collective punishment against their political opponents.

CRITICS OF GOLDSTONE REPORT CLAIM IT IS UNFAIRLY AGAINST ISRAEL, BUT THEY NEVER SAY WHY

I don't understand the criticism of Judge Richard Goldstone for his Report on the Israeli attack on Palestinians in Gaza in January 2009. The U.S. State Department, the NYT's David Brooks, as well as the liberal J Street group -- all say that the Goldstone Report is biased against Israel. But they never say why or give examples. Have any of these critics ever read the Report? If so, they need to cite examples by giving page numbers and specific overstatements or untruths. Otherwise, their comments are what we called in law school worthless and "conclusionary."

Barry Bearak writes in The New York Times on some fallout faced by Judge Goldstone in his desire to attend his grandson's bar mitzvah in Johannesburg.

Writes Bearak:

"Judge Goldstone, 71, is certainly no grandpa retreating into retirement. After the end of apartheid, he served on South Africa’s highest court until 2003. He was also the chief prosecutor for the United Nations’ war crimes tribunals on Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

"In early 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council selected him to lead an investigation into possible violations of international law during the three weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009. He said he was “shocked, as a Jew” to be chosen.

"The Goldstone Report, released last September, concluded that, based on the available evidence, both Israel and Hamas had taken actions amounting to war crimes. But the findings focused mostly on the Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel later said, “We face three major strategic challenges: the Iranian nuclear program, rockets aimed at our civilians and Goldstone.”

"Here in the judge’s home country, many Jews suddenly viewed him as a heretic. He was accused of faulty reasoning. He was accused of being co-opted. He was accused of being the worst kind of anti-Semite, a self-hating Jew."

The point of all of this is that these critics of Goldstone and his Report are engaging in all sorts of name-calling and slander. If a person disagrees with the Report, it is not enough to say that Goldstone is biased or self-hating Jew. The most important part of any argument especially this one is what follows "because," as in, "This report is biased against Israel because . . ."

WHY WON'T OBAMA ACCEPT JUDGE GOLDSTONE'S REPORT ON WAR CRIMES COMMITTED BY HAMAS AND ISRAEL'S IDF?

I don't understand why Pres. Obama gives access to Israel's prime minister Bibi Netanyahu to come to the White House for talks, yet Obama refuses to talk with leaders of Hamas.

Both Hamas and Israel's IDF have been cited by Judge Goldstone as committing atrocities and war crimes. Hamas, by allowing Palestinians to fire rockets aimed at Israeli villages and towns. The IDF because of all of its anti-civilian actions during the three-week war this past January. Specifically, the Goldstone Report found that the IDF randomly shot at and killed civilians, including women and children. Bombed U.N. food distribution centers and schools. Used white phosphorous bombs and shells against a civilian population. Refused to allow civilians to flee the conflict. Destroyed homes and apartments that had no military purpose.

So why should Obama allow someone like Netanyahu who defends the actions of the IDF as necessary and proportionate? Come on, Obama, stand up to the bully Netanyahu and say publicly that Judge Goldstone's report should be accepted.

BBC REPORTS ON CLAIMS BY 26 ISRAELI SOLDIERS OF WAR CRIMES IN GAZA

The BBC reports today on a group of 26 Israeli soldiers who claim that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) committed war crimes against civilians in Gaza during Israel's three-week offensive last January.

Writes the BBC on its web site:

"The troops said they had been urged to fire on any building or person that seemed suspicious and said Palestinians were sometimes used as human shields."

Of course, the IDF denies the plausibility of the charges, saying that the accusers are anonymous and that their claims are "hearsay."

The BBC writes:

"Reacting to the report, Israeli military spokeswoman Lt Col Avital Leibovich said:

""The IDF [Israel Defence Forces] regrets the fact that another human rights organisation has come out with a report based on anonymous and general testimony - without investigating their credibility."

"She dismissed the document as "hearsay and word of mouth"."

The testimonies of the 26 soldiers was taken by Breaking the Silence, an Israeli group dedicated to exposing the cruel policies of the IDF towards Palestinians.

Reports Paul Wood, Middle East correspondent of the BBC:

"Until now, Israel always had a ready answer to allegations of war crimes in Gaza. Claims were, they said, Palestinian propaganda. Now the accusations of abuse are being made by Israeli soldiers.

"The common thread in the testimonies is that orders were given to prevent Israeli casualties whatever the cost in Palestinian lives.

"The Israeli military says past allegations of wrong-doing in Gaza were the result of soldiers recycling rumours.

"But Breaking the Silence has a long - and to many, credible - record in getting soldiers to talk about experiences which might not reflect well on the army."

The BBC quotes the report on soldiers' experiences in Gaza vis-a-vis the Palestinian population. Writes the BBC:

"The report says testimonies show "the massive and unprecedented blow to the infrastructure and civilians" was a result of Israeli military policy, articulated by the rules of engagement, and encouraged by a belief "the reality of war requires them to shoot and not to ask questions".

"One soldier is quoted saying: "The soldiers were made to understand that their lives were the most important, and that there was no way our soldiers would get killed for the sake of leaving civilians the benefit of the doubt.""

Here's the BBC on the testimony of another soldier:

""People were not instructed to shoot at everyone they see, but they were told that from a certain distance when they approach a house, no matter who it is - even an old woman - take them down.""

How then can Israel and the IDF escape the tarnish of these reports? It will take more than claiming that the reports hold no validity or that they are merely hearsay to make the world change its opinion that Israel went into Gaza last January with the clear intention of showing Hamas and the Palestinians that the whole population would pay in lives and blood for its opposition to Israel and its harsh policies.

NO SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN

Stop the rush to apply U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Politico reports in a story by David S. Cloud that there is a move among some Democrats in Congress to press Obama to quickly apply sanctions on Iran.

I say that the Democrats who call for more Iran sanctions are acting on behalf of Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman as well as for AIPAC, and are not acting in the interest of the United States or of world peace.

I voted for Obama to put an end to the U.S. policy of mounting a military attack against any country or any one who disagrees with any U.S. policy. Apparently there are also Democrats who agree with war mongering Republicans that the best way to take care of Iran is with U.S. war planes, bombs and tanks. I call upon Obama to resist these militaristic calls to punish Iran and the Iranian people.

Obama needs to sit down with president Ahmadinejad in a dialog of respect and negotiation. And he forcefully needs to confront the war makers in both Israel and the U.S. who want nothing else than to kill anyone who says that Israel is cruel and racist, its inhumane and criminal military campaign against the Palestinians in Gaza notwithstanding.

MONETARY REWARDS MEAN NOTHING TO ISRAELIS OR PALESTINIANS

I want to call attention to an interesting op-ed in today's The New York Times on the Israeli/Palestinian problem.

Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges write on how little monetary rewards or hopes for economic improvement mean to either the Palestinians or Israelis who believe that their sacred values trump everything else even if means at the cost of their lives.

Write Atran and Ginges:

"Many of the respondents insisted that the values involved were sacred to them. For example, nearly half the Israeli settlers we surveyed said they would not consider trading any land in the West Bank — territory they believe was granted them by God — in exchange for peace. More than half the Palestinians considered full sovereignty over Jerusalem in the same light, and more than four-fifths felt that the “right of return” was a sacred value, too.

"As for sweetening the pot, in general the greater the monetary incentive involved in the deal, the greater the disgust from respondents. Israelis and Palestinians alike often reacted as though we had asked them to sell their children. This strongly implies that using the standard approaches of “business-like negotiations” favored by Western diplomats will only backfire.

"Many Westerners seem to ignore these clearly expressed “irrational” preferences, because in a sensible world they ought not to exist. Diplomats hope that peace and concrete progress on material and quality-of-life matters (electricity, water, agriculture, the economy and so on) will eventually make people forget the more heartfelt issues. But this is only a recipe for another Hundred Years’ War — progress on everyday material matters will simply heighten attention on value-laden issues of “who we are and want to be.”"

So Atran and Ginges come up with a compromise that they opine might very well work:

"Absolutists who violently rejected offers of money or peace for sacred land were considerably more inclined to accept deals that involved their enemies making symbolic but difficult gestures. For example, Palestinian hard-liners were more willing to consider recognizing the right of Israel to exist if the Israelis simply offered an official apology for Palestinian suffering in the 1948 war. Similarly, Israeli respondents said they could live with a partition of Jerusalem and borders very close to those that existed before the 1967 war if Hamas and the other major Palestinian groups explicitly recognized Israel’s right to exist."

Frankly I have always looked with befuddlement on the Israeli demand that the Palestinians recognize "Israel's right to exist." For me, these are just words. If I were an Israeli, I cannot see caring at all about whether some Palestinian admits my country has a right to exist. In fact, Israel does exist, and Israel's existence is not conditioned upon making sure that Israel's neighbors confess to its existence right.

And similarly with the Palestinians. More than anything else, according to Atran and Ginges, the Palestinians want respect and contrition. They want Israelis to apologize for taking their land in 1948. They want Israelis to stop humiliating them.

So why can't Israel formally apologize? And why can't the Palestinians make a solemn acknowledgement of Israel's right to exist? The cost on both sides seems so small, so worthwhile, so cost-effective.

Write Atran and Ginges:

"Remarkably, our survey results were mirrored by our discussions with political leaders from both sides. For example, Mousa Abu Marzook (the deputy chairman of Hamas) said no when we proposed a trade-off for peace without granting a right of return. He became angry when we added in the idea of substantial American aid for rebuilding: “No, we do not sell ourselves for any amount.”

"But when we mentioned a potential Israeli apology for 1948, he brightened: “Yes, an apology is important, as a beginning. It’s not enough because our houses and land were taken away from us and something has to be done about that.” His response suggested that progress on sacred values might open the way for negotiations on material issues, rather than the reverse.

"We got a similar reaction from Benjamin Netanyahu, the hard-line former Israeli prime minister. We asked him whether he would seriously consider accepting a two-state solution following the 1967 borders if all major Palestinian factions, including Hamas, were to recognize the right of the Jewish people to an independent state in the region. He answered, “O.K., but the Palestinians would have to show that they sincerely mean it, change their textbooks and anti-Semitic characterizations.”

"Making these sorts of wholly intangible “symbolic” concessions, like an apology or recognition of a right to exist, simply doesn’t compute on any utilitarian calculus. And yet the science says they may be the best way to start cutting the knot."

ISRAELIS -- IT'S ALL THE FAULT OF HAMAS USING PALESTINIANS AS "SHIELDS" IN GAZA

The government of Israel is always trying to blame Hamas for deaths and injuries caused to Palestinian civilians, many of them children. In fact, even Israeli citizens adopt this line and spin.

Griff Witte writes in today's The Washington Post:

"Unlike in 2006, when Israelis grew bitterly split over the war in Lebanon, the invasion of Gaza has produced a rare consensus here. In newspapers and on television, commentators approvingly note that the Israeli military has sown devastation in Gaza without a high toll in Israeli lives. If Palestinians are dying, they say, it is Hamas's fault."

Doctors are reporting horrific injuries to civilians, including burns and lung damage, not to mention many who need amputation of legs and arms.

It is pure spin to claim that the Hamas fighters are using Palestinian civilians as shields. Israel and its army knew full well that any shelling of homes or buildings in Gaza was sure to cause huge numbers of civilian deaths. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas, and there are numerous multi-story apartment buildings.

Israel and Israelis cannot escape liability and condemnation for war crimes by claiming that they don't "intend" to call or target civilians. The very act of bombing Gaza structures has a necessary and proximate connection to the deaths of the Palestinians who just happen to live there.

U.N. DRIVER KILLED BY ISRAELI TANK SHELL

The United Nations Relief Agency says it is suspending operations in Gaza indefinitely after one of its drivers was killed by an Israeli tank shell. Apparently the driver was in a vehicle clearly marked as belonging to the UNRA.

The BBC reports:

"The UN's move came shortly after it said one person had been killed and two hurt when a fork-lift truck on a UN aid mission came under Israeli tank fire at Gaza's Erez crossing.

"The UN's relief agency Unwra said it was "with great regret" that it had been forced to make a difficult decision.

""We have suspended our operations in Gaza until the Israeli authorities can guarantee our safety and security," said Unwra spokesman Chris Gunness.

""Our installations have been hit, our workers have been killed in spite of the fact that the Israeli authorities have the co-ordinates of our facilities and that all our movements are co-ordinated with the Israeli army."

"The UN said the movements of the truck hit at the Erez crossing had been co-ordinated and cleared with the Israeli military."

This is the trouble with the Israeli attack against Gaza. Indeed this is the trouble with all wars and other actions involving military tanks, war planes and missiles.

Innocent people die. Soldiers indiscriminately fire and kill anything that moves. There is no individuality morality or concern for another's life or welfare.

How many war crimes has Israel committed in the execution of its ridiculous and ill-thought out plan to bomb and invade Gaza?

ISRAEL'S DIRTY WAR IN GAZA KILLS 30 IN U.N. "SAFE" SCHOOL

Israeli troops fire tank shells into a U.N. school thought to be a safe haven by Palestinian civilians, primarily children. At least 30 are killed, many children.

Does Israel think it can accomplish any political aims by killing children? Does it think this action makes it more safe and more immune from Palestinian rockets?

On a more fundamental level, what makes any nation or people or government think it can achieve anything by shooting, bombing, killing its perceived "enemy"? We know that George Bush and Dick Cheney will go down in infamy because they stupidly believed that the U.S. army was justified in killing Iraqis to overthrow Saddam Hussein. So too will the Israelis who lobbied and insisted on this dirty war in Gaza

ISRAELI SHOOTING IN GAZA TERRIFIES PALESTINIAN CHILDREN

BBC Radio today interviewed an officer of the UN relief agency on the dire situation in Gaza. Residents are terrified and traumatized, he said. There is no electricity, no power to re-charge phones, no food, no cooking oil, no heat. More than 50% of the Palestinians in Gaza are children. There is constant shooting and shelling.

What must the world do to force Israel to stop? And who can imagine that Dick Cheney could be so immune to human suffering and catastrophic plight of the Palestinians that he would so blithely support Israel's right to starve, shoot and incinerate civilians?

ISRAEL'S ATTACK PUTS U.S. IN DANGER

Thanks to Juan Cole in his Informed Comment today for pointing this out: the U.S. puts itself in danger by blithely supporting Israel's attack on the Palestinians in Gaza. One of the rationales for the 9/11 hijackers was to punish the U.S. for its support of Israel and its policies against the Palestinians.

Writes Juan Cole:

"The outbreak of hostilities affects Americans, since al-Qaeda hit New York and the Pentagon in some important part over the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians. The airstrikes and large death toll also present a challenge to the incoming Obama administration, which may find peace-making more difficult now."

The rest of the world, including the European Union and the United Nations, condemns the Israeli attack as disproportionate. Having failed to kill off the Palestinians by starvation, fuel and basic resources blockade, preventing Palestinians from leaving Gaza for essential medical treatment, shooting at Palestinian youth who happen to wander to close to the border, now Israel decides to send in the warplanes with bombs and missiles.

Yet people like that small minded republican pro Cuban blockade Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl) are quick to express their full approval for Israel's war crimes. And Bush and Rice put the blame for Israel's attack on the victims, Hamas. No matter that over 200 people are now dead or that Israel specifically targeted the Gaza police force, the Republicans mindlessly express their support for Israel and its lethal actions. No wonder most of the Arab world is outraged by American actions.

ISRAELI GOVT. CLAIMS IT IS FRIEND OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Why is it that aggressors always claim their actions are in self-defense or that the "enemy" is killing its own people when the whole world knows well that it is the aggressor's war planes and missiles that kill the target civilian population?

I refer to the U.S. army in Afghanistan claiming it was not responsible for killing villagers and innocent civilians when it bombed and fired missiles at houses and homes, but it was the fault of "terrorists" who happened to live in those homes who thus put their families at risk. Oh yeah, sure!

It is the same explanation that we now hear from Israel, after sending in its war planes to bomb and destroy Hamas police stations and control centers. It is not Israel's fault if hundreds of civilians are blown apart, but it is Hamas that causes the death and destruction of its own population.

Or as I heard yesterday on BBC Radio, some guy from the Israeli government claims Israel is the "friend" of the Palestinians in Gaza and wants to "help" those Palestinians, if they could only get rid of their elected government, Hamas.

Now as I have repeatedly said before, I condemn those Palestinians who fire rockets into Israeli villages and towns and threaten and kill Israelis. There is no justification for violence, whether by means of a gun or a tank or a rocket.

But I also strenuously condemn Israel for thinking it can defeat the Palestinians by military force and air raids. So far, we receive reports of hundreds of Palestinians killed by the Israeli air raids. Please don't argue that this will solve the Israeli-Palestinian question. We all know it will just inflame and exacerbate the hatred of the Palestinians for Israel. To think that it will cause some Palestinians to end firing of rockets into Israel is, like Shakespeare said, but hope of orphans and unfathered fruit. Totally without basis.

Leaders of Israel in their use of military might are much like Bush and Cheney, thinking that killing "enemies" will bring peace. They are equally deluded.

GEORGE BUSH - DEMAND IMMEDIATE END TO ISRAELI ATTACKS IN GAZA

Remember the U.S. government reaction to the Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Condoleeza Rice and George Bush did nothing to stop the Israelis when they bombed the Beirut airport, fired missiles at apartment buildings, and dropped cluster bombs in a 30-mile swathe in southern Lebanon.

Now today with Israel invading Gaza, all the Bush government can do is to counsel Israel not to kill civilians. This is outrageous. The U.S. should be loudly protesting the Israeli action and calling for an immediate Israeli withdrawal.

When Israel sends war planes into Gaza to fire missiles and drop bombs, the casualties are sure to be civilians, I mean, men, women and children who have done nothing wrong other than to be Palestinian.

Just as I condemn those few Palestinians firing missiles into southern Israeli towns and villages, so do I condemn the Israelis for leveling apartment buildings with their bombs.

After WWII, we all thought collective punishment was done away with, given the universal scorn and condemnation it merited. But it seems to have returned with even more ferocity. Witness the Israeli attack on Palestinian civilians as retribution for the actions of a few deranged Palestinians firing missiles at defenseless Israeli civilians.

Bush and Rice, don't just sit there when Israeli war planes are killing civilians, demand an immediate end to this Israeli aggression directed at innocents.

ISRAEL STARTS OFFENSIVE AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

Just yesterday Israel bowing to international pressure opened its portal entries to Gaza, allowing basics of life to start flowing again to the Palestinians.

Now today, the BBC reports attacks by Israeli war planes against police stations and Hamas offices in Gaza, killing over 100 people, maybe many more.

"Israeli F-16 bombers have launched a series of air strikes against key targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 155 people, medical chiefs say.

"Gaza officials and the Hamas militant group said about 200 others were hurt as missiles hit security compounds and militant bases across the territory.

"The strikes, the most intense Israeli attacks on Gaza for decades, come days after a truce with Hamas expired."

And Tzipi Livni, Israel's Foreign Minister, says that this is the just the start of a comprehensive Israeli military campaign inside of Gaza. Reports the BBC:

"Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni defended the air raids, saying Israel had "no choice". "We're doing what we need to do to defend our citizens," she said in a television broadcast.

Israel hit targets across Gaza, striking in the territory's main population centres, including Gaza City in the north and the southern towns of Khan Younis and Rafah."

Israel is thus starting another protracted military offensive against the Palestinians, showing itself to be a dangerous actor against world peace. This Israeli strike could be the start of a protracted drawn-out blood bath, with Palestinians civilians being hurt the most.

Reports the BBC:

"Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said "it won't be easy and it won't be short".

""There is a time for calm and a time for fighting, and now the time has come to fight," he said, quoted by Reuters."