The UN Human Rights Council meets this Tuesday to formally receive the report from the U.N. Fact-Finding Mission on Gaza, headed by Judge Richard Goldstone who will appear before the council
As the UN Human Rights Council prepares to consider the Goldstone Report against Israel's actions in Gaza, a key discussion next week will revolve around a Palestinian-backed resolution that could send the issue to The Hague.
The Council, which is set to meet Tuesday in Geneva, will debate a draft resolution that calls for the endorsement of the report, with a vote expected Thursday or Friday.
UNHRC set to debate Goldstone Report
Now what?
What should the US response be? Both as a member of the UNHRC and, if the report is referred to the Security Council, as one of the 5 permanent members?
It appears that there is a draft resolution that will be debated after the report is presented, to endorse the report and refer it to the UNSC with a recommendation for referral to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
There seems to be mixed messages from the administration. It appears that our preference is to keep the report from being referred to the UNSC.
Last week, US officials sent confusing signals to Jewish leaders after an off-the-record conference call, prompting the White House to clarify how it would handle the Goldstone report.
In the call, reported by the JTA, a White House official told Jewish organizational leaders that the US strategy was to "quickly" bring the report to its "natural conclusion" within the Human Rights Council. But Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, then called JTA to say the official "misspoke" in saying the US would prevent the recommendations from reaching the International Criminal Court.
Israel is understandably concerned about the implications of the UNSC taking up the resolution and referral to the ICC.
Falk cited the report's likely impact on "the symbols of legitimacy, what I have called the legitimacy war" between Israel and the Palestinians. "Increasingly," he wrote on the Web site Mideast Online, "the Palestinians have been winning this second non-military war."
Falk predicted the report would mean gains for the international movement to boycott Israel and would fray Israel's Jewish support, as well. "The weight of the report will be felt by world public opinion," he predicted.
Haaretz is reporting that Israel and the US will be successful in limiting the report's repercussions
WASHINGTON - Israeli and American diplomats came to the United Nations not to praise the Goldstone Report, but to bury it. And unlike Marc Antony in his eulogy for Julius Caesar, they meant it.
As a result of their efforts, it appears all but certain that the report accusing Israel and the Palestinian faction Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity will not reach any binding international forums.
The argument seems to based on the chilling effect the report would have in the fight against terror.
The argument that Israel presented to American officials and to diplomats from Russia and key European countries was designed to appeal to their own self-interest. The Goldstone report, Israeli officials asserted, carries a hidden danger for all countries participating in international military campaigns against terrorism. Supporters of Israel pointed out that the United States military, for one, has killed many civilians during its military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This is a report that should worry every country fighting terror," said Jonathan Peled, spokesman of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. "We need to make sure this report does not endanger the U.S. and other countries."
Israel is also mobilizing the American Jewish Community to protest the report and limit ist referral
Ayalon urged American Jewish leaders to take on the report. Most major Jewish groups issued statements condemning Goldstone's findings and calling on the international community to look at the Israeli military's inquiry into its Gaza operation. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee called the report "deeply flawed" and said that Goldstone's investigation was rigged.
Key supporters of Israel in Congress also lashed out at the council. New York Democrat Gary Ackerman, chair of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, fumed that the report's authors lived in a "self-righteous fantasyland."
And the accusation that the report is racist in nature.
Goldstone as 'anti-Semite'
Some Israeli officials went after Goldstone, who is Jewish, personally. Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz denounced him as an "anti-Semite."
"Just as a non-Jew can be anti-Semitic, a Jew can also be anti-Semitic and discriminate against our people and despise and hate our people," he told the New York paper The Jewish Week.
Israel, U.S. working to limit damage of Goldstone report
Israel, U.S. working to limit damage of Goldstone report
Human Rights Watch is urging the EU to endorse the report in its totality.
Human Rights Watch is urging the European Union to endorse the Goldstone report.
In a letter to EU foreign ministers, Human Rights Watch called on the union and its 27 member states to "promote an international order where no state is above the law" and asks them to support a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council endorsing the Goldstone report "in its totality."
JTA
Turkey seems to be open to referring the report to the UNSC
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said Turkey will push the UN Security Council to discuss the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead, which accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes.
"We will definitely take the position to discuss this issue on the Security Council," Reuters quoted Erdogan as saying. There should be "accountability" for anyone guilty of war crimes in Gaza, he reportedly added.
Erdogan: Turkey will urge Security Council to discuss Goldstone Report
So, what should the US do here?
And why?