Israel is completing its response to the United Nations inquiry into Operation Cast Lead, the IDF counter-terrorism report filed by South African Judge, Richard Goldstone, known as the Goldstone Report. 

Readers should be reminded that Israel decided not to cooperate with the inquiry, realizing from the onset it had already arrived at its conclusions and rather than probing the charges, it stated it was gathering evidence to substantiate allegations of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” against Israel. As such, the report was indeed one-sided.

The New York Times reports that at present, Israel realizes the Goldstone Report is being taken quite seriously, going as far as quoting a recent statement by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who stated, “We face three strategic challenges, the Iranian nuclear program, rockets aimed at our civilians and Goldstone”.

As such, Israel is preparing the government’s official response, using official footage to disprove some of the allegations, including one case in which Goldstone reported an F-15 targeted a flour mill with Israel showing footage that the damage was the result of accidental artillery fire, quite a different story from the report intentional air strike.

While Israel is preparing her response, the UN and others have apparently made up their minds and the Arab lobby will be pushing ahead for Security Council sanctions against Israel. In addition, Defense Minister Ehud Barak over the weekend officially informed United Nations Secretary General Bank ki-Moon that Israel is willing to pay $10.5 million in damages to the international body, stressing the move is not an admission of guilt but a good-will gesture to the UN on Israel’s part.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)