Is the Goldstone Report being used merely as a weapon of continued conflict by extremists on both sides?

Many are arguing that Palestinians who fail to denounce Israel for its conduct in Gaza, as cited by the Goldstone Report, is an indication of failed leadership and they are using the Goldstone Report not as a review of Israeli war crimes (and Hamas war crimes, too) but rather as a political weapon to attack Israel and moderate Palestinian leaders who support two-states. It is the typical manner in which extremists exploit Palestinian suffering, not to end the suffering but to continue the conflict to an end they seek but that is impossible to reach.

The Goldstone Report is an unprecedented action in Arab-Israeli history, meticulously detailing the war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza during the War Israel started in November 2008. But it also details war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is no different than the settler terrorist organization which is slowly choking moderates out of Israel's government.

But the Goldstone Report is not the real priority for Palestinians and the blame game, which Palestinians and Israelis play well through years of experience, is an exercise in futility when it comes to achieving justice.

The only answer to the tragedies, war crimes and violence is peace, peace based on two-states and peace based on non-violence by both sides.

As Palestinians and Arabs, we can continue to scream at Israeli atrocities to no avail, or, we can work towards a genuine peace based on compromise. Any other goal besides compromise is not possible and only prolongs the conflict and prolongs the suffering mainly for Palestinians.

Supporters of the One-State agenda, a nightmare plan for the continued mental occupation of the Palestinian people embracing an impossible goal, argue that only Israel should be criticized because they killed more Palestinians than Hamas killed Israelis.

How can we Palestinians have fallen so low morally to make that argument when every life is worth fighting for in a moral and principled world. Crime and criminals should be punished through the court of law not through vigilante justice nor through emotional screaming that feeds irrational rejectionism.

If we achieve peace then the tragedies and sufferings will end. The Goldstone Report and the terrorism of the Israeli military and the Hamas fanatics are a symptom of the failure to achieve peace, a result that has been played over and over during the past 61 years. The history of Palestinian and Israeli relations are pock marked by repeated tragedies of similar circumstances and those tragedies will continue.

Rejectionists and one-staters insist that the PLO and the Palestine National Authority have failed to prosecute the case for the Goldstone Report, saying they are not leaders.

But the truth is that those fanatics are using the Goldstone Report not to achieve justice for the victims but as a weapon in their continued efforts to block peace and provoke more conflict. The rejectionists and fanatics want more violence and they want more atrocities so they can point a finger at the enemy -- Israelis and Palestinians -- and blame someone to score political points. It makes them popular among the emotion-distraught Palestinian population and public. Screaming hate is always the easy road to leadership. But real leadership is to recognize the reality of the Goldstone Report, argue for its adjudication through a process of the Rule of Law, but not use it to prevent peace. Real leadership comes from those Palestinians who stand up to the fanatics in our community and who demand that we have a two-state solution and an end to the conflict.

The real failures are among the fanatics and extremists and Hamas terrorists who use violence and suffering to keep the cauldron of tragedy stirring so they can artificially lift themselves up to self-proclaimed positions of leadership while allowing our people to sink into a lifetime of tragic hell.

Their dream of continued conflict is a nightmare for the Palestinians that we continue to live, exploited and fueled by Israeli extremists and settler terrorists, but one that we help to make happen through rejection.

Two-states and peace are the only real answer to the atrocities committed in the Gaza Strip by Israel's military and by the settler fanatics.

Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com

Israel's government distorts truth in response to War Crimes report

Israel's government distorts truth in response to War Crimes report
By Ray Hanania --Renown South African Jurist Richard Goldstone has completed a comprehensive report on the war crimes committed during the Israeli war started against Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 4, 2008 and the Israeli response has been to call Goldstone, a Jew who prosecuted war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia an "anti-Semite" with no basis in international law. While the war crimes in Gaza are a real crime, the outrageous slander that marks Israel's government response to any form of criticism is an even bigger crime. They argue Israel did not start the war, Hamas did. But the facts prove Israel wrong. But does truth matter in today's world? Not when it comes to Israel's government.

I completed an exhaustive study of how the Gaza War started based on Israeli government and university sources that monitored the peace agreement that was in place between Israel and Hamas in 2008 that involved the firing of rockets and Israeli attacks against the Gaza Strip.

The facts show Israel intentionally started the Gaza war mainly fearing that the election of Barack Obama as president -- because he was raised in a Muslim background, has an Arab middle name, Hussein, was friend with many Palestinian activists in Chicago, and has an inherent sympathy for downtrodden people abused by demagogues and government dictatorship.

Here's the link to the report:

www.TheMediaOasis.com/Hamasrockets.htm

What you might also notice if you research anything that has to do with Israeli atrocities and reports of this kind is that the Government of Israel has engaged in a strategic public relations campaign to counter the unveiling of the truth and to protect their lies.

For example, at the bottom of nearly every Google Web site reference to Israel's war crimes in Gaza are ads purchased by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel's Government, which leads individuals who red these few online reports to see an alternative propaganda spin.

This debate over Goldstone's war crimes report is being handled differently by Arabs and Israelis.

The Arabs are relying on their worthless, emotional leadership and activist spokespeople to scream and yell and make the Arabs feel good. But the Arab response to the report has been insignificant in terms of educating the world to the veracity of the report.

In contrast, Israel's government has unleashed a sophisticated public relations campaign to counter the truth and make a pre-eminent Jewish legal scholar, Richard Goldstone, into an anti-Semite.

It's the same kind of immoral conduct that Israel and its legion of blind supporters engaged in responding to former President Jimmy Carter who accurately warned that Israel's actions in the West bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip against the occupied civilians there amounted to a form of Apartheid.

Since then, Carter has been vilified and the vilification of Carter continues. Carter's biggest problem is that he continues to associate with the loser leaders and activists in the Palestinian community, especially in the United States, who could argue their way out of a paperbag they are so incompetent.

The fact is Israel is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in public relations and communications dollars to spin the truth into acceptable lies that favor them. But they really don't need to because the Arab response has been pathetic, filled with emotion rather than facts and logic and actually play in to the Israeli defense strategy.

It is a tragic day in this world when the victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity can't even get a chance to defend themselves and face their accusers in an open court. Palestinian victims are much like the women assaulted by male rapists. The rapists main defense is that the women victims "caused" their own rape by inviting it. They use fear and further shame to force the victims of rape to remain silent.

Goldstone's report was meticulous and fair. It not only cites instances of war crimes in the murder of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli Defense Forces, it also condemns Hamas with also committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But it's the fact that the report is balanced and holds not only Hamas but Israel's government to account that most offends Israel's supporters who would rather lie to defend Israel than to acknowledge the truth in order to achieve a lasting peace.

END