The Blood Spill
By David Glenn Cox (Author)
Last April, Justice Richard Goldstone was barred by the South African Zionist Federation from attending his grandson’s bar mitzvah. Justice Goldstone was ostracized in the Jewish community because of the findings of the Goldstone Commission. After reading of his ban I took it upon myself to read all five hundred and seventy-five pages of the Commission's report.
It is very damning towards Israel and I’m not a bit surprised by the outrage in the Israeli community, but I think that their outrage is misdirected. Page six, Goldstone Commission:
8. The Mission repeatedly sought to obtain the cooperation of the Government of Israel. After numerous attempts had failed, the Mission sought and obtained the assistance of the Government of Egypt to enable it to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.
9. The Mission has enjoyed the support and cooperation of the Palestinian Authority and of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations. Due to the lack of cooperation from the Israeli Government, the Mission was unable to meet members of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The Mission did, however, meet officials of the Palestinian Authority, including a cabinet minister, in Amman. During its visits to the Gaza Strip, the Mission held meetings with senior members of the Gaza authorities and they extended their full cooperation and support to the Mission.
Israel contends that the Goldstone Commission was biased against Israel, but since Israel refused to cooperate and went above and beyond trying to block the investigation, the burden of proof then shifts. The Internet is full of Israeli-inspired websites explaining away all of the faults of the Goldstone Commission. It is one thing to electioneer from the court house lawn; it is quite another thing to step into the docket and defend yourself. Israel’s refusal to cooperate finds them tried in absentia, which they argue is unfair, yet it was their own decision.
After reading about the attack on the flotilla headed for Gaza, I tuned in to CNN International to see if there was any news. There wasn’t. CNN was asking questions like, “Will this damage the peace process?” Let’s not be childish; there is no peace process. There is a stalling process, an ethnic cleansing process and a blockade process.
27. The Mission focused (Chapter V) on the process of economic and political isolation imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip, generally referred to as a “blockade”. The blockade comprises measures such as restrictions on the goods that can be imported into Gaza and the closure of border crossings for people, goods and services, sometimes for days, including cuts on the provision of fuel and electricity. Gaza’s economy is further severely affected by the reduction of the fishing zone open to the Palestinian fishermen and the establishment of a “buffer zone” along the border between Gaza and Israel which reduces the land available for agriculture and industrial activity. In addition to creating an emergency situation, the blockade significantly weakened the capacities of the population and of the health, water and other public sectors to react to the emergency created by the military operations.
28. The Mission holds the view that Israel continues to be duty-bound under the Fourth Geneva Convention and to the full extent of the means available to it to ensure the supply of foodstuff, medical and hospital items and others to meet the humanitarian needs of the population of the Gaza Strip without qualification.
A blockade is an act of war; an economic blockade for the purposes of exacting political concession by force of general public misery is considered collective punishment, and under the Geneva Convention is considered to be a war crime. During Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, between 1,387 and 1,444 Palestinians were killed. On the other side nine Israeli soldiers were killed, four of whom were killed in a friendly fire accident. The Israeli government reports that there were four fatalities from a rocket attack in Southern Israel.
The Commission's report condemned Israel for attacking civilian targets such as police stations, hospitals, schools, and water treatment facilities. Armored Israeli bulldozers destroyed the largest poultry farm in Gaza. Are chickens so threatening? There is, of course, the fog of war and most people understand that. So you can’t just say that the Israelis dropped leaflets telling civilians to move towards the city center and then shelled the city center. That must be a mistake. It has to be a mistake, just as firing white phosphorous rounds at a hospital knowing that there was no fire protection available and even if there had been there was no water pressure after the water works had been bombed twice.
There is a reason for these things, as nothing happens in a vacuum. The world has shifted under Israel’s feet. Her protector has moved on. Before the American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel was the lone US ally in the region, but that is no longer true. The US sphere of influence has shifted to the Persian Gulf. The US no longer needs Israel for runways or logistics or communications. For every dollar that AIPAC can put up, the Saudis, Dubai and the Emirates can put up ten, through their business holdings, of course.
This leaves Israel angry, isolated and frightened, the spoiled, only child that is no longer cute. So she acts up to try and get her way because she fears that time is not on her side. Paranoia begets paranoia and anger begets anger and the Israeli media makes Fox News look like Code Pink. According to the Jerusalem Post, a fifteen-year-old Palestinian boy dropped his bicycle and attacked a dozen Yeshiva students in East Jerusalem. The boy was beaten into a coma and later died and no one was charged in the attack. This is in the context of a government that welcomes a sitting Vice President on a peace mission from his boss, our President, by the announcement of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem.
It was, without a doubt, the greatest insult to a sitting American diplomat in history; which Prime Minister Netanyahu's office apologized for as bad timing of the announcement, but they have not retracted the plans. Imagine Biden visiting North Korea to talk about arms reduction and they test-fire missiles, or Biden visiting Tehran to discuss nuclear issues and Ahmadinejad announces new reactor plans. It is an undiplomatic way of saying, “Your trip here is a waste of time.”
The more they become isolated the more they become bellicose, and as an American citizen I respect the rights of Israelis to tell the American government to stick it where the sun don’t shine. However, credibility would compel me to add that you should send back the $30 billion in foreign aid sent by the United States over the past decade. Then your statements of doing it all on your own will have iron in them and will be believable. Otherwise, by keeping the money and telling the US to buzz off, it makes Israel appear as an ungrateful guttersnipe that will take our money but not our advice. Not so much a friend of the United States but a friend of American cash only.
Using commandos, helicopters and warships to commandeer civilian vessels in international waters is, by definition, piracy on the high seas. Killing nine and injuring thirty is another crime. Excuses and explanations and accusations aside, Israel committed an international crime on the high seas and there is no justification for it. It is the type of action we expect from proselytized, propagandized and paranoid nations such as North Korea. It is not a sign of strength but a sign of weakness.
Just like closing the border to intellectual terrorists, such as Noam Chomsky, who might do damage to Israel with the power of his mind. Or ostracizing Justice Goldstone for telling the truth. Which begs the question what makes for a better follower of Judaism: telling the truth in the name of righteousness or covering up crimes in the name of genetics? Would Justice Goldstone be admired in Israel if he had lied and covered up war crimes and crimes against civilians?
Israel, like a paranoid psychotic, has alienated its friends and antagonizes its enemies, then blames its troubles on untrustworthy friends and too many enemies. It's a land where the peace process is nothing more than a front to continue its ethnic cleansing, and making a Palestinian State no more than an ethnic Swiss cheese reservation in a greater apartheid Israel. A land where they have become their own grandparents' worst nightmare as well as the greatest threat to their own existence.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf
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