israel/palestine
24 Nov 2009
Our Foreign Minister Can't Handle The Truth
The Goldstone report tells some uncomfortable truths about the way the Gaza conflict got started. But they are truths Stephen Smith would rather not hear, writes Jake Lynch
Recently a piece in the Fairfax media told of the "huge shock" the Israeli Government establishment is feeling as a result of the findings of the Goldstone report into war crimes during the Gaza conflict at the start of this year.For the Israeli Government, one of the most shocking aspects of that report is the way it lays out detailed evidence contradicting the Israeli narrative of how that eruption of violence was triggered, in the context of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
That evidence itself is not news to anyone who has followed the events closely. What Israel and its allies find disturbing is the reality of high-level rejection of their justifications for that attack.
One of the most important sections of the UN-commissioned Goldstone report is its account of events leading up to the first air raids on 27 December last year. A truce brokered by the Egyptian Government, which came into effect some six months earlier, was proving largely effective. Then, the report notes: "After two months in which few incidents were reported, the ceasefire began to founder on 4 November 2008 following an incursion by Israeli soldiers into the Gaza Strip."
A member of Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigade was killed in the raid on a house where — Israel said — a tunnel was to be dug for use in "kidnapping" its soldiers. The Brigade loosed off some 30 rockets in reply; this was followed by an Israeli air raid which killed five more of its members.
The UN General Assembly voted, by an overwhelming majority, to refer the report to the Security Council (Australia was one of the dissenting minority). As quoted by Peter Hartcher in his story on Israeli "shock", Foreign Minister Stephen Smith attributed Australia's rejection of the report to Goldstone's "unbalanced focus on Israel [and] insufficient attention to Hamas' actions prior to the conflict, especially rocket attacks".
Canberra seems to have bought into Israeli propaganda over the sequence of events. The day after "Operation Cast Lead" began, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was interviewed on network television in the US, telling NBC's Meet the Press program that: "About a half a year ago, according to the Egyptian Initiative, we decided to enter a kind of a truce and not to attack Gaza Strip. Hamas violated, on a daily basis, this truce. They targeted Israel, and we didn't answer."
Goldstone is not the only authority to contradict this account. A private Israeli research group, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre, released a report in early January, dividing the ceasefire into a "period of relative quiet between June 19 and November 4", when "Hamas was careful to maintain the ceasefire", and "the escalation and erosion of the ... arrangement" which it dated to "November 4 [when] the Israeli Defence Force carried out a military action close to the border security fence on the Gazan side". Indeed, a fact sheet produced by the Israeli consulate in New York said the rate of rocket and mortar fire from Gaza dropped to almost zero and stayed there for four straight months following the ceasefire.
Another canard refuted by the Goldstone report is that Hamas committed war crimes by using civilians as human shields. "The Mission found no evidence," it says, "to suggest that Palestinian armed groups either directed civilians to areas where attacks were being launched or that they forced civilians to remain within the vicinity of the attacks." There was no evidence that buildings attacked by Israel, including hospitals, were being put to any military use or that ambulances were being used to transport combatants, as Israel had claimed.
Stephen Zunes, a professor from the University of San Francisco and a seasoned observer of the conflict, called the 4 November raid "a huge provocation", and one that "was actually intended to get Hamas to break off the ceasefire". It raises the question of why Israel might want to attack when it did, which takes us beyond Goldstone's remit.
At the time of the Israeli ceasefire violation, the dominant process for achieving peace in the area was the UN-backed "Road Map". That peace plan called for a Palestinian ceasefire as the prerequisite for "launch[ing] a process, leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders". Provisional or not, those borders would have to be on or very close to the Green Line that encompasses 22 per cent of Mandate Palestine, and that would entail an Israeli withdrawal from its illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza (where it is still the occupying power by virtue of controlling air space, seaboard and border crossings) and the evacuation of its illegal settlements.
Parallel with this was the conference at Annapolis, Maryland, brokered by then US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and then Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert agreed to work continuously to reach a two-state solution by the end of 2008.
With the ceasefire apparently holding, pressure was mounting on Israel to make real concessions for peace, that pressure coming not least from its own citizens: a poll by Tel Aviv University, in February of last year, revealed that nearly two-thirds of Israelis favoured the opening of direct talks between their own government and the leadership of Hamas.
Israel has traditionally responded to such a situation with violence and provocation. The Hamas Charter lays claim to the whole of Palestine, but senior leaders sometimes signal that they would accept a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders, summoning up what is, for Israel, the alarming prospect of Palestinian unity. They have tended to be killed shortly afterwards, as was the fate of both Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, in Israeli missile strikes from American-supplied helicopters.
It certainly seems that this occasion was no different. In June, just before the ceasefire had even begun, Olmert paid a "surprise visit" to Washington, meeting with both president Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney, instead of Rice. Immediately on his return to Tel Aviv, Olmert was telling reporters that the "pendulum [was] swinging" towards an attack on Gaza. Just a few months after his Washington meeting, Olmert began his attack. Once again, Israel had launched military action with the green light from the US.
It's not surprising therefore that the US leads the minority of countries that refuse to endorse the Goldstone report. Its role as self-proclaimed mediator should be viewed with scepticism, as it is also Israel's chief ally and weapons supplier, a logic summed up in the phrase attributed to Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger: "Israel is America's unsinkable battleship in the Middle East."
Despite the inconvenience of recognising these facts, the international community needs to acknowledge the responsibility of the people behind the calculated wrecking operation that Israel carried out in Gaza. It's an acknowledgment that Australia should take part in too. Look again at the Goldstone report, Mr Smith, and think again, please.
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114 countries voted for the UN General Assembly Resolution on the Richard Goldstone Report on Gaza, 18 voted against (including pro-Zionist Apartheid Australia), 44 abstained, and 16 were absent (see "18 countries voted against UN Resolution on Goldstone Report": http://gpolya.newsvine.com/_news/2009/11/06/3469696-18-countries-voted-a… and "Pro-US, pro-Zionist Australia refuses to support Goldstone Report at UN General Assembly": http://gpolya.newsvine.com/_news/2009/11/06/3469523-pro-us-pro-zionist-a… ).
Pro-US, pro-occupation, pro-war and pro-Zionist Apartheid Australia’s decision to oppose UN General Assembly endorsement of the Richard Goldstone Report on the Israeli Gaza Massacre is utterly shameful.
In this most recent December 2008-January 2009 Israeli Gaza Massacre in what a top Catholic Church prelate has described as the Israeli Gaza Concentration Camp, the Israelis killed about 1,400 Palestinians in reprisals for ZERO (0) Israeli deaths from Gaza missiles in the previous year.
Richard Goldstone is an outstanding Jewish South African judge with a fine record in the area of human rights. Apartheid Australia’s refusal to support the Goldstone Report is shameful and cements its financial, military and diplomatic support for war criminal, genocidal racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel - a nuclear terrorist rogue state according to eminent Israeli Professor of International Relations at Oxford University , Professor Avi Shlaim.
Apartheid Australia’s support for and involvement in the Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide (post-invasion excess death s0.3 million, 2.3 million and 3-7 million, respectively) is de facto anti-Arab anti-Semitism against ethnically and/or culturally Arab Semitic people.
Apartheid Australia’ rejection of the Gaza report of outstanding anti-racist Jewish South African human rights lawyer Richard Goldstone can be argued as evidence of anti-Jewish anti-Semitism - a further instance of the Apartheid Labor Party’s policy of kow-towing to genocidal, war criminal, racist Zionists (RZs) while resolutely ignoring the humane advice of outstanding, anti-racist Jews opposed to the evil racist obscenity of racist Zionism and indeed to ALL racism.
Informed by anti-racist Jews Against Racist Zionism (JARZ) which provides a compendium of the opinions of such outstanding, anti-racist Jews opposed to the evil racist obscenity of racist Zionism (see "Jews Against Racist Zionism ": http://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/) it is hoped that decent, anti-racist Australians will Put Labor Last at the next election.
It is surely not possible for decent, anti-racist folk to vote for a racist Apartheid Labor Party that supports racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel (even when it bombed 25,000 Australian citizens in Lebanon in 2006), makes donations toward the Palestinian Genocide tax deductible and is actively involved in the ongoing Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Climate Genocide and Aboriginal Genocide.
As exampled by UN Human Rights Commission reporter on Gaza Richard Goldstone and UN Human Rights reporter on Occupied Palestine, Professor Richard Falk, it is impossible for decent, anti-racist Jews or indeed any decent, anti-racist folk to support racism, whether that of Apartheid South Africa, Apartheid Australia or Apartheid Israel.
Peace is the only way but Silence kills and Silence is complicity.
Of course, since the horrific hammer attack to the head of an Enlish schoolboy, by a Muslim youth gang, much sympathy for the suffering Muslims in Gaza has gone out of the window worldwide.
Watching and listening to the ABC here in Australia is very instructive. Any reference to the Palestinian situation is ALWAYS heavily biased towards israel. As I have noted before, SBS sometimes gives an account of a ‘happening’, say, in Gaza, on the 6.30. TV News, and it is NOT so heavily biased towards israel, in the main, and is somewhat accurate to reality. A few minutes later, I watch ABC TV News, the same incident comes up, and you would not believe that they are talking about the same thing, this coverage is just SO heavily biased/slanted, and totally ignores TRUTH!
All of our pollies are utterly beholden to the israeli Zionist lobbies, especially those in city based electorates, where the majority of the lobby money and influence comes to bear.
Stephen Smith, Julia Gillard and some others are stand out representatives of this total bias towards the agressor state, israel, with never any indication that TRUTH and BALANCE comes into their thinking. They know who pays for their re-election.
But the ABC, our National Broadcaster, shamefully follows the israeli propaganda line in every broadcast, cutting and shaping every article to comply with this enforced bias.
Part of the problem is that the Palestinians are either unable or unwilling to try and set the record straight. Most of this problem can be laid at the door of Governments, who make sure that all donations to Palestinian causes from Australians never come close to them, and the donors are branded ‘supporters of Terrorists’, and the moneys confiscated. All at the behest and demand of the israeli Military (US Backed) dictatorship and their cowardly, mindless followers.
One thing we can always be sure of is that our Representative in the UN will ALWAYS follow the US/israeli line, word for word, vote for vote, and never mind that any thinking person would have to be able to see the injustice of this gormless pandering to Big Boss (US) and Little Controller (israel). After all, the USA is utterly committed to doing the bidding, no matter that these actions may be, and generally are, traitorous to US interests in the extreme, of their Dog Wagging Tail. We just follow the US line, and israeli lobby demands.
Associate Prof Lynch,
Your adherence to the nonsensical Goldstone report because it was commisioned by the UN is absurd.
Mr Smith is correct to consign this "report" to the dust bin.
Australia has a responsibility to the Peace and security of Israel/Palestine.
The IDF, the legitimate army of Israel defends its borders and people because it is comprised of the brothers and sisters, fathers and children of those whom it protects.
Who on earth is "The al qassam brigade" comprised of?
Hamas, a terrorist and avowed enemy of the State of Israel, who martyrs, men women and children indiscrimanately.
Please Jake, give us all a break and get over the fact that there are Jews who have taken an antiisrael stance for no other reason than to better their own agenda.
I would have thought that occupying the chair of Peace and Conflict studies at Syd U you would have moved beyond Stereotypes 101, and digested the history and geography of the Middle east, and left your anti American bias out of this debate.
Australia uses blackhawk and Seaking helicopters for rescue and aid purposes. You would hardly attribute these missions to doing America’s bidding. So why would Israel’s defensive actions using these same choppers against the rocket launches of Gaza be in America’s interest?
I sometimes wonder if Israel had been an ally of Russia’s and left the name for that postage stamp tract of land between Lebanon Syria, Jordan,and Egypt, ‘Palestine’ they would have been a lot better off.
In this country, Australia, we are required by law to vote. Isn’t it sad the two major parties are so avowedly pro-Zionist? I don’t believe I will ever vote Labor again.
Thanks Jake.
We are able to understand the truth by reporting such as this in NewMatilda and the Economist.
This year a surprising number of American commentators have called for cessation of US aid in response to continued settlement building and the facts presented in the Goldstone Report.
In a better world Bush, Chaney and Rice would be being tried for War Crimes. Unfortunately for ordinary Americans IRAQ, Afghanistan etc etc will bleed their young men and treasury over the ludicrously simple question of Justice for the Palestinian people.
Why change anything a former prime minister Moshe Sharett siad Israel played the part of the injkured and should continue doing so to its advantage. Addittionally recent experience finds spin works well truth is not necessary. All sorts of shifts in the blame stakes are possible aided by a media willing to widely report "fact" in support of the established order.
The Goldstone report completely ignored vital information about the Gazan conflict.
Israel dropped 1,000s of leaflets warning of the impending invasion.
And what did Hamas do?
That’s right they forced their own civilians into dangerous areas and situations, using them as human shields to try and prove the Israelis as callous and brutal.
And another report has commended Israeli actions in trying to avert civilian casualties wherever possible.
It also found that any other nation under attack from missiles on a daily basis for over eight years would have (eventually) in all liklihood have reacted in much the same way.
It is really beyond comprehension that both sides of politics (both major parties) are so solidly behind Israel.
Is this out of conviction? I find that hard to believe. So something more sinister must go on.
As EarnestLee quite rightly said, in a better world Bush & Associates would be indicted for war crimes.
I finally secured the book "Guilt by Association" by Jeff Gates (2008) via Amazon. My library cheerfully offered to get it, then had to pull back; they could not obtain an inter-library loan. When I tried "Borders" they did not have it and did not offer to get it for me. So why not? The book is all about the Iraq war and Israel’s expansion.
Once again Jake Lynch has shown why Academia in Australia is in such a sorry state. His cursory glance of this extremely complex situation shows an obvious bias and an even more glaring ignorance to the facts on the ground.
He mentions the genocidal Hamas Charter and then continues by saying that some Hamas leaders have accepted a two-state solution. He fails to mention that the majority of these moderate leaders have been forced into the minority of the party because of the increased Islamisation of Gaza and have no power. He also fails to mention the anti-Semitic television programs that infect the children of Palestine. To see just a few abhorrent clips please visit www.pmw.org.il
Whilst the report does state that no human shields were used the report is wrong! All Goldstone had to do was to look at the many videos that the IDF produced and put onto YouTube (example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vHDyuSTneA) that show Hamas terrorists deliberately endangering the lives of civilians in order to increase the civilian death toll so it would look better on television. This lack of incorporating public evidence shows that Goldstone failed where first-year law students would succeed and proves that Goldstone, and his team, was bias in selecting their evidence. This cherry-picking of deliberately inflammatory evidence and situations shows that this report is not worth the paper it is printed on.
Goldstone himself conceded that had this been a judicial trial his partner, Christine Chinkin, who concluded in January (before being selected for the committee) that Israel had committed war crimes, would have been removed. However what Goldstone fails to understand is that, according to this article, his report was judicial. It is a judicial trial in the court of public opinion and Goldstone’s report was just another in a long line of bias, unfair accusations against Israel.
The Catholic Church correctly describes Gaza as an Israeli-run Concentration Camp.
Half the 1.5 million inmates of the Gaza Concentration Camp are children, three quarters women and children.
Apartheid Israel polices this Concentration Camp not just with armed soldiers (as in Nazi-occupied Europe and with past and present US and UK concentration camps) but with tank and naval shelling and aircraft dropping high explosive and skin-burning phosphorous bombs.
Half the 4 million Occupied Palestinians held hostage on their own country by racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel are children, three quarters women and children.
UNICEF data (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html ) indicate that racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel deliberately murders an estimated 3,600 under-5 year old Occupied Palestinian infants every year by deliberately withholding life-sustaining food and medical supplies unequivocally demanded of Occupiers by the Geneva Convention .
It is apparent to all Humanity - except for the racist Zionists (RZs) and their racist Western backers including the racist, pro-Zionist Lib-Labs of Apartheid Australia - that those who KNOWINGLY ignore, deny, excuse, minimize, obfuscate, support, advocate or are otherwise complicit in the gross abuse of women and children - or indeed of anyone - have crossed the line separating decent Humanity from Nazi-style barbarism.
It is simply not possible for decent, anti-racist Jewish Australians - nor indeed any decent, anti-racist Australians - to vote for the Palestinian Genocide-complicit, pro-Zionist Lib-Labs (see "Jews Against Racist Zionism": http://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/)..
One reason for disgusting Labor support for the racist Zionists and Apartheid Israel is corruption via huge donations from Zionists, most notoriously from Australia’s biggest white collar criminal.
A fundamental message from the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) is "zero tolerance for racism".
The racist Zionist (RZs) are corrupting, lying, anti-Arab anti-Semitic (e.g. by genocide of Arabs) and anti-Jewish anti-Semitic (e.g. by discounting, slagging or defamation of outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian Jews such as Judge Richard Goldstone and Professor Richard Falk) - the racist Zionists (RZs) and their racist supporters should be sidelined from Australian public life as have been other evil racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis and KKK.
Peace is the only way but Silence kills and Silence is complicity.
(This comment has been edited.)