From CounterPunch How Could I Not Go? An American Jew Sails to Gaza By JANE HIRSCHMANN People often ask me why I am part of a team to organize a U.S. Boat to Gaza that will be sailing this month with the next International Flotilla to break the siege of Gaza. They often make clear they are asking because I am an American Jew, whose family survived the Holocaust with some surviving family members ending up in Israel. And my only answer is: How could I not? My parents raised me with stories about what happened in Germany and their family's escape. I came to see that Israel represented for them a safe haven should there be another attempt at annihilating Jews. And yet, at the same time, they worried it was not so safe a haven given the animosity and physical threats and violence in the area. But no one ever mentioned the displacement of 750,000 Arabs that was the result of the creation of Israel. I vaguely knew there were people living there, but I was never curious about who these ...

Goldstone is not retracting after all, although this won't stop Israel from seeking to get it thrown out by the UN. South African jurist Richard Goldstone said Tuesday that he did not plan to seek nullification of his highly critical UN report on Israel's 2008-2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip and asserted that claims to the contrary by Interior Minister Eli Yishai were false... ...In an interview with The Associated Press, Goldstone said that Yishai had called him on Monday to thank him for an op-ed piece published Friday in The Washington Post in which the judge wrote that new information had come to light that made him rethink his central conclusions. Goldstone said, however, that he never discussed the report with Yishai in the telephone conversation. Israeli leaders have called for the report to be retracted since it was issued in 2009. "There was absolutely no discussion about the Goldstone report on the call," the jurist said in a telephone interview from Stanfo...

On the basis of Goldstone's about turn on the Gaza war in which he now claims in a Washington Post article that 'civilians were not deliberately targeted as a matter of policy', the Israelis are asking for the Goldstone Report to be withdrawn. What has led Goldstone to change his mind on the matter? He draws attention to the case of the al-Simouni family. Twenty nine members of the family were wiped out by IDF shelling. An investigation is underway by the IDF but no report has so far emerged. Goldstone describes this delay as 'frustrating' but then goes on to say, with no evidence to support his position, that" While the length of this investigation is frustrating, it appears that an appropriate process is underway, and I am confident that if the officer is found to have been negligent, Israel will respond accordingly. This is an incredible leap of faith given the extremely poor record of the Israeli military in disciplining or prosecuting its soldiers. It wou...

We knew this already but it is still shocking just how weak and supine the Palestinian leadership has become. Hopefully events in Tunisia, and most importantly in Egypt, will give them some backbone, unlikey though. Time for them to move out of the way. Certainly need to get rid of this collaborator Abbas. Palestinian Authority leaders co-operated with US officials in a bid to postpone the reference of the Goldstone report into war crimes in Gaza to the UN security council, leaked papers reveal. The PA, who have denied they made the decision under US pressure, later reversed their decision. The postponement of the report into Israel's 2008 assault on Gaza triggered heavy criticism of the PA leadership, at one time threatening Abbas's position. But at a meeting on 21 October 2009, three weeks after the Goldstone scandal erupted, US national security adviser Jim Jones told the Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat: "Thank you for what you did a couple of weeks ago [on Goldstone...

The more the Israeli government lies, the more the truth will out. Interviews with the minority of truly moral soldiers in the IDF are starting to speak out openly about the war crimes committed by their comrades and how those crimes were directed from the top and were not the work of rogue elements. The IDF set out to 'cleanse' whole areas of Gaza with wanton and indiscriminate fire. ... in startling interviews with Israeli filmmaker Nurit Kedar, former soldiers have for the first time allowed themselves to be named while blaming their commanders for encouraging a "disproportionate" response to Hamas's rockets. They said their commanders used to "psych up" soldiers before an operation so they were ready to shoot indiscriminately. One soldier says he was told to shell every house in a neighbourhood. Richard Goldstone's report for the UN alleged that war crimes had been committed by both sides, but highlighted the moral and legal severity of the Israe...

Two IDF staff sergeants have been indicted for forcing a nine-year-old Palestinian boy to open a package suspected of containing an explosive device. The incident only came to light after testimony at the Goldstone hearing which Israel refused to co-operate with. Although indicted, whether the soldiers will receive any punishment is an open question, with the move more likely a bit of window-dressing by the Israeli state in order to keep up the pretense that it is a democracy where the rule of law prevails. The maximum sentence they can receive is three years in prison, although it's more probable that the sentence will be a suspended one.

Israel has agreed to co-operate with an inquiry by the UN into the flotilla massacre, according to reports . It is thought Israel has agreed the move as a way of heading off an inquiry by the UN Human Rights Council which Israel loathes even more than the general assembly. It is under the auspices of the UNHRC that the Goldstone investigation and report on Israel's Gaza war crimes was conducted. At last week's meeting in Washington Obama probably told Netanyahu to wise up and go along with the talking shop as the US will make sure nothing substantive will come out of it by way of criticism or action against Israel. Unfortunately that's probably true, but nevertheless it is an indication of the growing isolation of the settler state, showing that those activists murdered on the flotilla did not die in vain.

Edward Sanders of the LA Times has an interesting article looking at the small number of indictments of IDF soldiers for crimes they committed in Gaza. Even though the Israeli courts' moves are pathetic and cosmetic, Sanders shows how a growing number in Israel are beginning to leave their self-imposed reality distortion field - as more come to admit that perhaps Goldstone was 'on the right track after all' in his UN report on the war. You would have thought 1,400 dead, overwhelmingly civilians, may have been enough to raise the blinkers from the eyes of at least some Israelis. Well perhaps the minority of Israelis who have had enough of their government racist oppression of Palestinians is growing. Reporting from Jerusalem — A short but growing list of criminal indictments and disciplinary actions stemming from Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip 18 months ago is raising a prospect that many Israelis are likely to find unsettling: that the controversial Goldstone ...

UN human rights council votes to set up an independent investigation into Israel's Gaza attack. This is the same body that set up the Goldstone inquiry into the conduct of Israel's 2008/9 war against the people of Gaza. A United Nations body has frustrated Israeli and US efforts to prevent an international probe into the killing of nine pro-Palestinian protesters by voting to set up a fact-finding mission into Monday’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid convoy. The Geneva based UN Human Rights Council backed by 32 votes to three a resolution on Wednesday that condemned “in the strongest terms the outrageous attack by the Israeli forces against the humanitarian flotilla of ships” that was trying to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip this week. The US, the Netherlands and Italy voted against the motion, which was sponsored by Pakistan, Sudan  and the Palestinians while nine countries, including France, Belgium, Japan, the UK and South Korea abstained.

The perverse Israeli PR machine scored another own goal in its quest to make the state it serves the most popular one in the world with the banning of Chomsky from the West Bank . Of course they have now given Chomsky and the Palestinian cause the publicity and support they seek to deny - what foolish arrogance. It would appear that the 'Jewish state' is now waging war against Jewish people that speak out against Zionism. Goldstone has been feeling their wrath for some time - he has penned a defence of himself here - "my loyalty is to justice", he explains. A week ago 'democratic' Israel shot dead a peaceful protester, Ahmed Salim , at the Gaza buffer zone unilaterally created by Israel to deprive Palestinians of even more land. Meanwhile Israel is doing its best to prevent the aid flotilla from reaching Gaza. It has now deported Izzet Shahin , from the Turkish NGO Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), who was in Palestine (...

Judge Richard Goldstone has been asked not to attend his grandson's bar mitzvah after coming under pressure from pro-Israel extremists. Jewish groups had planned to organize a protest outside the synagogue if Goldstone was in attendance, according to reports. Reached in Washington, where he is now based, Goldstone was reluctant to comment, but did say that “In the interests of my grandson, I’ve decided not to attend the ceremony at the synagogue.” Arthur Chaskalson, a retired chief justice of South Africa, said it was “disgraceful” to put pressure on a grandfather not to attend his grandson’s bar mitzvah. “If it is correct that this has the blessing of the leadership of the Jewish community in South Africa, it reflects on them rather than Judge Goldstone," Chaskalson said. "They should hang their heads in shame.” more

Excellent article by Donna Neve, a Jewish American supporter of Israeli Apartheid Week writing in Haaretz today (see below). The Israeli establishment seems increasingly split over how to respond as another Haaretz article shows: ...Recently I experienced deja vu when I saw the exact strategy I had been taught so many years ago being used by the Israeli government and the American Jewish establishment as part of a relentless hasbara campaign to denounce and discredit Justice Richard Goldstone and the Goldstone Report. On this past International Holocaust Day, as part of this campaign, the Israeli government shamefully used this day to further its attack on Justice Goldstone and the report. The attack has been particularly virulent, perhaps because this evidence-based report, whose lead author is internationally respected and known as a supporter of Israel, revealed the immorality of the IDF's actions with powerful legal authority. The IDF is not a "defense" force. It is...

As predicted UN General Assembly strings it out on Goldstone and war crimes investigation of Israel... UN General Assembly one more time called Israel and the Palestinians on Friday to hold credible investigations regarding the war crimes they were accused of committing during Gaza war last winter. The General Assembly gave the two parties a period of 5 months to do their investigations. more

The general assembly meets tomorrow to discuss the Goldstone Report and the responses from the Israeli and Palestinian side. Expect the UN to end up postponing any decision - give the parties more time to come up with better reports, as if both sides were somehow equally guilty of war crimes! UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon raised concern at a meeting Wednesday with Israel's defense chief that Israel's recent designation of holy sites in the West Bank as heritage sites and demolitions in East Jerusalem could hinder a resumption of stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, a U.N. spokesman said. The U.N. chief discussed prospects for reviving peace negotiations and broader Mideast issues with defense chief Ehud Barak for about an hour, including a 15-minute tete-a-tete, officials said. more

Barak visiting US next week to try and hurry up war on Iran and head off Goldstone report Defense Minister Ehud Barak will travel Tuesday to the United States for meetings with high-ranking U.S. and UN officials. Barak is due to meet with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other Pentagon officials. On Barak's agenda are the Iranian nuclear threat and prospects of renewing negotiations with the PA. At UN headquarters he is expected to discuss the Goldstone report on the Gaza war. more

Israel's supreme court president, Dorit Beinish, is calling for an investigation into the Gaza war in response to rising pressure following the Goldstone report . "I believe Israel has nothing to fear from a commission of verification ... Israel is strong enough not to be afraid of such a verification," Beinish said in a speech in Jerusalem. "I believe it will turn out that many things have been exaggerated, but to be certain we must verify." more

UN's Ban Ki-Moon is trying to sit on the fence as usual despite the overwhelming evidence of Israel's war crimes. The idea that the 13 dead from Palestinian rocket fire is comparable to 1,400 dead, overwhelmingly civilians, is ludicrous and unjust. Nevertheless, Ban says he can't work out whether the reports submitted to date by both sides are enough to take matters forward. and non-aligned nations will hopefully take up the question of Israel's refusal to co-operate with the Goldstone inquiry (unlike the Palestinian side) as an indication of their bad faith, because of course it more than suggests that they have something to hide. To rub salt into the wounds, Ban criticises the Palestinian side for only setting up its inquiry four days before the UN deadline foe submissions. A delegation representing the Arab, Islamic and Non Aligned groups are scheduled to meet with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon later Friday to discuss his report to the General Assembly on Thursday ...

Israel has got a new best friend: the millionaire racist and sexist clown Berlusconi. The Italian prime minister has added his considered opinion on the Goldstone, describing it as an attempt 'to incriminate Israel for its justified firing on Hamas' rockets'. He didn't mention the 1,400 dead Palestinians. This man is a dangerous fool. He didn't let the opportunity pass to join the US in winding up the world for war on Iran for the audacity of thinking it can have nuclear weapons like Israel! How silly of the Iranians - they must learn to know their place. The hypocrisy of the West - and its policeman in the Middle East, Israel - is boundless.

JERUSALEM — Israel sent a letter to the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, on Friday, defending the credibility of its internal military investigation into the Israeli army’s conduct during last winter’s Gaza war. The 40-page document was the first Israeli official response to a harshly critical United Nations study called the Goldstone report and formed part of Israel’s effort to stave off accusations of war crimes. more

Israel has missed the deadline to get its report to the UN but it now says, according to the defence minister, that it will be sending a report after all. It seems Israel's arrogance is clouding the judgment of its leaders, and now they have decided that perhaps they have over-stepped the mark by showing such disrespect to international governmental bodies. As a deadline neared, Israel will hand to the United Nations Friday a report justifying its actions during last year's Gaza campaign and rebutting the so-called "Goldstone Report" as biased. At a tree-planting ceremony southern Israel Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirmed that the response would be handed over and said, "This report stresses that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is like no other army, both from a moral standpoint as well as from a professional standpoint. more