GayandRight

My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam. I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)

Friday, September 25, 2009

Dershowitz on Goldstone...

Why the Goldstone report pushes back the chances for peace...
There are many things wrong with the Goldstone report, which accuses Israel of deliberately targeting civilians in order to punish the people of Gaza.

First, its primary conclusions are entirely false as a matter of demonstrable fact. Second, it defames one of the most moral military forces in the world, along with one of the most responsive legal systems and one of the freest nations in the world when it comes to dissent. Third, it destroys the credibility of “international human rights,” and proves that this honorable concept has been hijacked for political purposes directed primarily against one nation—Israel.

But fourth, and most important, it has set back prospects of peace by making it far more difficult for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank. When Israel was considering its withdrawal from Gaza, some critics predicted that the transfer of Israeli troops out of this dangerous area would encourage terrorists to fire rockets at Israeli civilians who live in close proximity to the Gaza Strip. Those who favored the withdrawal argued that if Palestinian terrorists were to fire rockets from the unoccupied Gaza, Israel would have a perfect right to do whatever it took militarily to stop its civilians from being targeted by enemy rockets. They pointed out that every country has the right to self defense under the United Nations Charter and under the rules of international law. (I favored the withdrawal, as did many liberal supporters of Israel and believed that Israel had the military capacity to respond to any rocket attacks.)

As soon as the Israeli army left the Gaza Strip, Hamas decided to launch rocket attacks on Israeli civilian targets. The Hamas website proudly proclaimed, “The Zionist Army is afraid that the Palestinians will increase the range of the new rockets, placing the towns and villages in the [Zionist] entity in danger.” These Hamas rocket attacks increased over the years until more than a million Israelis were within range. Thousands were traumatized, dozens were injured and several were killed by the thousands of anti-personnel rockets that targeted children, women and other civilians. As candidate Barak Obama said when he went to visit Sderot, the town most devastated by these unprovoked Hamas war crimes:
“The first job of any nation state is to protect its citizens. And so I can assure you that if…If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israeli to do the same thing.”
Israel protested these rocket attacks to the United Nations, but to no avail. They increased in frequency and range.

The citizens of Israel, especially those in range of the attacks, demanded that their army protect them and not wait until a rocket hit a school bus filled with children or a nursery. Since most of the rockets were fired while children were on route to or just beginning their classes, the risk of a cataclysmic tragedy were considerable. Finally after enduring years of rocket attacks, Israel decided to undertake military action to stop them.

Just before the hostilities began, Israel offered a carrot and a stick: it reopened a checkpoint to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. It had closed the point of entry after the checkpoint had been targeted by Gazan rockets. (On several prior occasions, Hamas rockets had targeted Israel points of entry through which aid had been provided. It was as if Hams was deliberately trying to manufacture a humanitarian crisis. Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, also issued a stern, final warning to Hamas that unless it stopped the rockets, there would be a full-scale military response.

This is the way Reuters reported it:
“Israel reopened border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after Prime Minister warned militants there to stop firing rockets or they would pay a heavy price. Despite the movement of relief supplies, militants fired about a dozen rockets and mortar shafts from Gaza at Israel on Friday. One accidentally struck a house in Gaza, killing two Palestinian sisters, ages 5 and 13. [T]he deliveries could ease the tensions that might have led to a military action to end the rocket attacks. Palestinian workers at the crossings said fuel had arrive for Gaza’s main power plant and about a hundred trucks loaded with grain, humanitarian aid and other good were expected during the day.”
Finally in desperation Israel launched an attack designed to stop the rockets. It succeeded in large part though some rocket attacks have continued. Because Hamas fired its rockets from behind human shields, it was inevitable that there would be civilian casualties, despite Israeli efforts to reduce them by making hundreds of thousands of phone calls and leaflet drops warning civilians to stay out of the streets.

Goldstone’s one-sided condemnation on Israel will make it far more difficult for Israeli leaders to persuade their citizens to remove their soldiers from the West Bank. Rockets fired from the West Bank would endanger far more Israeli civilians and threaten to close the Ben Gurion Airport. Israel now knows that if it were to try to defend itself against such rockets, it would once again be condemned by the United Nations. It will now be far more difficult for Israelis who oppose a continued presence of Israeli troops on the West Bank to persuade a majority of Israelis that the army can protect them even if they leave the West Bank, without incurring the wrath of the international community.

12 Comments:

Blogger Falling on a bruise said...

It does amuse me how the pro-Israeli camp are spluttering and tying themselves up in knots to try and defend the Israeli criminal actions.
Even more pleasing is the lack of people leaping to Israels defence this time. You might not like what the UN report said but there has certainly been a seachange in how people see Israel. I say about time, they have been getting away with too much for too long.

3:26 PM  
Blogger GayandRight said...

Dear Lucy: What on earth are you talking about? Sea change? My god, everybody is against Israel...has been that way for years, and nothing has changed.

You still haven't answered my question about how Hamas and Likud are similar?

Hamas wants to kill all Jews. Likud's leader just spoke to the UN about wanting a Palestinian state.

fred

4:17 PM  
Blogger Falling on a bruise said...

There are always right wingers from your continent to wheel out when Israel is being criticised but they seem less in numbers. A good number of those i visit are actually just not mentioning it at all. I call that a sea change.

I answered your question a few times but i don't mind going through it again for you.

Both the Likud and Hamas manifesto's state that they do not want to live beside each other. They therefore share similar goals with the only difference being Israel exists and Hamas want to be rid of it while Palestine doesn't exist and Hamas are against letting it whatever Netanyahu is saying at the UN.

7:29 PM  
Blogger Falling on a bruise said...

correctio: Likud are against it, not Hamas.

7:31 PM  
Blogger GayandRight said...

Lucy - you just don't get it. Hamas wants to kill all Jewes!

Have you not read their manifesto???

Likud's position is that it is uneasy about a Palestinian state but that it will support one with conditions like ensuring it is demilitarized.

How on earth are the two positions similar????

1:10 AM  
Blogger Falling on a bruise said...

Uneasy about it? I suggest you go read it yourself. It is quite eye opening.

http://www.knesset.gov.il/elections/knesset15/elikud_m.htm

If you can read it and then come back here and tell me that the ruling Israel Government is being fair then i will suggest you haven't read it or you are blinded by your support for Israel.

Yes, i have read the Hamas manifest and it is abhorrent.

9:34 AM  
Blogger GayandRight said...

Ok..here goes:

Hamas: Kill all the jews.

Likud: The overall objectives for the final status with the Palestinians are: to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of a stable, sustainable agreement and replace confrontation with cooperation and good neighborliness, while safeguarding Israel's vital interests as a secure and prosperous Zionist and Jewish state.

The Likud government will honor all the international agreements signed by its predecessors and strive to achieve a final status arrangement with the Palestinians. The only way to reach a final status arrangement is via dialogue and political negotiations.

An you find these positions similar??????

10:33 AM  
Blogger Falling on a bruise said...

As i said at the start, you pro-Israeli types do amuse me. You must realise how self-defeating your blanket support of Israel is and how it makes you look but you either don't care or are just so blind to it that your moral filters are out of whack.
I can't believe you read through the likud manifesto and didn't find anything that didn't shift your opinion the slightest.
But then i can't see how you can begin to justify how Israel treat the Palestinians. I can't, and dont even try, to justify how Hamas act but you don't even seem capable of accepting that Israel is at fault. Amusing but thankfully a trait that seems to be finally reclining.

6:02 PM  
Blogger GayandRight said...

Ah..Lucy you decided NOT to answer my question.

It was YOU who said that Likud and Hamas are similar.

And, now you refuse to answer my question....

I'll ask it again:

1. Hamas wants to kill all jews.

2. Likud wants self-rule for palestinians.

How on earth do you think the two are similar????

fred

7:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fred
It is typical of people like Lucy who simply cannot see the difference of people targeting their rockets on civilians on purpose for years as opposed to trying to defend from those attacks by targeting the attackers while they hide in schools and mosks or simply on rooftops of residential buildings.

8:20 PM  
Blogger Falling on a bruise said...

Fred, I've answered your question 3 times and in 3 different ways to try and show you the similarities. I can go on flashing it up in bright lights for you but you just seem to be unable, or unwilling, to see them. I can go on trying to show you what is right infront of your eyes or just smile, shake my head and accept that you are just blind to anything that reflects bad on Israel. Shame but luckily, people with your view are becoming thin on the ground.

11:20 AM  
Anonymous sandra said...

Lucy, it does amuse me how people are so naive and blind...
Those who wrote Hamas' "abhorrent" manifest think non-Muslims like you (or are you?) aren't much good either.

5:52 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home