Members of Congress and Jewish organizations in the US have launched a campaign to minimize the huge damage caused to Israel's image in the US by the Goldstone Commission Report, after Judge Richard Goldstone, in an op-ed piece in "The Washington Post" on Friday, retreated from accusations against Israel in his report on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009 for the UN Human Rights Commission.
Reaction to the article is still muted, as it a weekend, a pro-Israel source in Washington told "Globes" that a "flood" of statements, petitions, and even official responses by the House of Representatives and the Senate can be expected in the coming days. He said that Representatives and the Senators will undoubtedly issue non-binding statements calling on the UN to withdraw the Goldstone Commission Report.
A Jewish activist told "Globes" that Goldstone's article will provide ammunition for right-wing members of Congress, who have always opposed US membership in the UN and the US's large share of the UN budget. The source said that some members of Congress will call for a freeze of US contributions to the UN until it officially annuls the Goldstone Commission Report.
The Anti Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman said yesterday that by Goldstone's "rescinding his charge in the UN report that Israel deliberately targeted civilians in the Gaza war is both gratifying and distressing.
"It is important that the author of the report now recognizes, as anyone who knows the history of Israeli military operations already knew, that targeting of civilians runs against everything the Israel Defense Forces stands for. Also significant is the clear distinction he makes between Israel's conduct in investigating accusations and the absence of any such investigations by Hamas."
The American Jewish Congress called on Judge Goldstone to formally ask the UN Human Rights Council to revise and update his commission’s 2009 report on Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza in a way that aligns its conclusions with his new thinking on what transpired.
AJC executive director David Harris said, "The Washington Post is not the place for Judge Goldstone to recant the biased and damaging UN report he wrote on the Gaza conflict. Judge Goldstone should apologize to the State of Israel for the accusations of intentionally targeting civilians, which he now admits were unfounded. He should present his updated conclusions to the UN Human Rights Council, as well as to the General Assembly, which endorsed the skewed report, and press for its rejection."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today told the cabinet, "There are very few instances in which those who disseminate libels retract their libel. This happened in the case of the Goldstone Report. Goldstone himself said that all of the things that we have been saying all along are correct that Israel never intentionally fired at civilians and that our inquiries operated according to the highest international standards. Of course, this is in complete contrast to Hamas, which intentionally attacked and murdered civilians and, naturally, never carried out any sort of inquiry. This leads us to call for the immediate cancellation of the Goldstone Report.
"I have asked National Security Council Chairman Yaakov Amidror to convene a special staff meeting of people from the Foreign, Justice and Defense ministries to formulate practical and public diplomacy measures, in order to reverse and minimize the great damage that has been done by this campaign of denigration against the State of Israel. I expect their recommendations in the coming days. We will act on the public diplomacy front, and on other fronts, with the international community and the UN in order to demand the justice that is due to Israel."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 3, 2011
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