US disses General Assembly debate on Goldstone Report

[Israel Insider]

The United States on Wednesday opted not to participate actively in the United Nations General Assembly debate on a resolution that would call on Israel and the Palestinians to investigate charges of war crimes during the Gaza war that were detailed in the Goldstone Commission's report. The nonbinding resolution on the Goldstone report, bound for approval by the 192-nation assembly, also requests that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon submit the 575-page report to the Security Council.

But US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice skipped the discussion and sent her deputy, Alejandro Wolff, as a note-taking observer. The report, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council and published on Sept. 15, criticized both sides in the winter conflict, which killed more than 1,000 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, but was harsher toward Israel. There is no veto in the assembly and the resolution looked sure to win a majority. But with more than 40 envoys listed to speak, most of them from Arab and other Muslim countries looking to pile on, it was unclear when the vote would take place.

It is unclear whether either the report or the Arab-drafted resolution -- which contains no criticism of Hamas and also throws in attacks on Israel's activities in Jerusalem -- could lead to punishment of either side. But it has enraged Israel and galvanized American Jews, and Israelis are fearful that the referral of the report to the Security Council to the World Court in the Hague may lead to charges against officials and IDF officers.

The resolution asks Ban to submit the report to the Security Council. But diplomats said all five veto-wielding permanent council members opposed council involvement, so it was unlikely the 15-nation body would take action.

In the assembly debate, Arab envoys praised the report by South African jurist Richard Goldstone and demanded an end to what they called the Israel's impunity. But Israel damned the document as "conceived in hate and executed in sin."

Meanwhile, in a clear warning to the administration, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to oppose UN endorsement of Goldstone's findings. The US at this time appears incline to vote against an endorsement of the Goldstone Report. Most members of the 27-nation European Union were likely to abstain, although diplomats said negotiations were underway with the Arabs to agree a text the Europeans could support.

Representing the EU, Ambassador Anders Liden of Sweden, the bloc's current president, called the report serious and urged Israel and the Palestinians to launch "appropriate, credible and independent investigations" into its charges.

But Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev gave no hint that her country, which refused to cooperate with Goldstone, would respond.

In her address to the assembly, she attacked both the Goldstone Report and the international body as being "irreparably tainted" and "bending both fact and law," adding that the "report and this debate do not promote peace; they damage any effort to revitalize negotiations in our region."

Shalev said the report ignored "the reality of terror" and the complexities of urban warfare against terrorists. She also dismissed the Goldstone panel as "a politicized body with predetermined conclusions." Shalev reminded the Assembly that Israel had suffered eight years of rocket attacks from Gaza, which violated the human rights of Israeli civilians.

"[But] rather than discuss how to better stop terrorist groups who deliberately target civilians, this body launches yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel," she said.

[Michael Shoemaker]

This was a chance for the Obama administration to stand up for Israel. They didn't.