The Goldstone Report

As the UN has done many times since the Second World War it responded to the deaths of thousands of civilians by commissioning a distinguished panel of experts in international law to prepare a report. Richard Goldstone was appointed to lead the enquiry. He first refused the commission -- his fifth within the UN -- because it did not explicitly mandate the investigation of possible war crimes by Hamas. When the mandate was corrected, Goldstone took it on.

As Goldstone is a Zionist and a life-long supporter of Israel it was reasonable to assume that his report would shake the UN's finger at both Israel, whose disregard for law that protects civilians was obvious, and Hamas who, in even the most sympathetic view, were negligent in permitting terrorists to fire rockets into southern Israel. But the Goldstone Report, available here: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/FactFindingMission.htm is compelling and persuasive reading even for those who have followed the conflict for many years and are unlikely to be surprised. In only a few summary pages of its 575-page report, Goldstone and his committee condemn Israel, and yes, Hamas, with stark evidence that supports the conclusion that judicial investigations are warranted.

Wait ... "Investigations are warranted?"

That's correct, the UN report that has been jeered at, laughed at, railed against and vilified, the legal experts who have been called anti-semites by the Prime Minister of Israel, the quotations that have caused an explosion of vicious nonsense among bloggers, twitterers and newspaper columnists, the investigation that the Israeli government did everything possible to halt simply recommends that both Hamas and Israel take a judicious look at what they have done. That is, that both conduct a legally plausible investigation into their conduct. How could such a report be condemned even by a Resolution of the US House of Representatives?

Because, finally, someone with unimpeachable credibility on the subject of international law, Israeli policy, the Palestinians -- and even Zionism -- has told the truth.