Love of the Land: Britain and France continue dance of deception as Goldstone Report goes to UN General Assembly

Britain and France continue dance of deception as Goldstone Report goes to UN General Assembly

Robin Shepherd
Robin Shepherd Online
04 November 09

If you want a comparison that illustrates the difference between the United States and Europe on attitudes to Israel in particular and basic standards of moral clarity in general, consider the following. Yesterday, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution deriding the Goldstone Report on Gaza as “biased and unworthy of further consideration” by 344 to 36, not much short of a 10-1 margin. That’s moral clarity.

Representing the European Union, Britain and France by contrast will be dancing through hoops at the United Nations General Assembly today with assorted dictatorships and tyrannies in a desperate attempt to massage and amend a motion based on the odious UN Human Rights Council’s (HRC) October 16 resolution endorsing the Goldstone Report and effectively throwing Israel’s right to self-defence out of the window. The French and the Brits could not even be bothered to turn up to vote at the HRC session in October, but under pressure from Israel and the United States now say they might possibly vote against the resolution in the General Assembly. Then again, they might vote in favour if they can get a couple of changes to the text. And then again (again) they might just abstain if they can’t make up their minds. That’s not moral clarity. It’s a moral dunghill.

But how quaint can I get? Moral clarity, Europe, and Israel all in the same sentence?

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Love of the Land: Britain and France continue dance of deception as Goldstone Report goes to UN General Assembly

Love of the Land: Clarity Bedevils J Street and the Obama Administration

Clarity Bedevils J Street and the Obama Administration

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
31 October 09

The Washington Post reports:

The House of Representatives on Tuesday is poised to pass a nonbinding resolution condemning a controversial U.N. report on alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip that has become a major complication in Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s diplomacy in the Middle East this weekend.

It seems this makes the Obama moral equivalence game a bit more treacherous. Hillary Clinton is meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, while the administration can’t quite bring itself to issue an unequivocal condemnation of Goldstone’s handiwork. (”The administration has previously said that the report is flawed but raises “important issues and serious allegations,’ and it has urged Israel to investigate its conduct in the conflict more closely.”) It is oh so inconvenient to have a stark statement of support for Israel and one of condemnation for yet another attempt to de-legitimize Israel’s right to self-defense.

It is making others squirm as well. As Josh Block of AIPAC notes, all the “mainstream” pro-Israel groups back the resolution. But not the J Street crowd. In a pathetic bit of projection, J Street’s head Jeremy Ben-Ami declares that the resolution ”puts members of Congress in an uncomfortable box” because of alledged inaccuracies in the resolution. Puleez. Congress feels no discomfort; it is J Street that is in a bind, caught with its sympathies showing.

J Street and the administration it seems would rather not make too much of a fuss over Goldstone’s Israel defamation. Their reaction however only highlights their own lack of understanding of the stakes not only for Israel, but for any democracy that must fight terrorists who chose to attack from behind the skirts of old women and the cribs of toddlers.

Love of the Land: Clarity Bedevils J Street and the Obama Administration