“We face three major strategic challenges: the Iranian nuclear program, rockets aimed at our civilians and Goldstone,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said. Thus, the Israeli government is currently taking action against the third threat enumerated by Netanyahu, the Goldstone Report.
The Goldstone Report is the result of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, initiated by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to investigate possible Israeli violations of international law during Operation Cast Lead. The report has been controversial, as it accuses Israel of committing war crimes during its Gaza incursion. For example, the U.S. House of representatives rejected the report’s finding in a non-binding resolution, though as House member Keith Ellison argued, few House members had actually read the report and the House resolution “risk[ed] undermining Congress’s and President Barack Obama’s reputation as honest brokers.” Others had stronger words for the UNHRC:
Sill, the UNHRC passed a resolution endorsing the report and the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling on Israel to conduct an independent investigation.
Now, the Israeli military is finishing its own report on Operation Cast Lead in an attempt to refute the Goldstone Report’s claims that Israeli non-combatant kills and infrastructural destruction was intentional. Israel clearly believes that creating the perception that it conducted Operation Cast Lead within the boundaries of international law is a strategic necessity.
