Gee Ben ... does it hurt to be wrong every time?

Keep keeping him honest, Slarti!

War crimes from both sides in Gaza conflict: UN
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Associated Press

A UN investigation into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza has found evidence that both sides committed "war crimes," the global body said Tuesday.

The investigation led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone concluded that "Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," during its Dec. 27-Jan. 18 military operations against Palestinian rocket squads in the Gaza Strip.

The report "concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity," by firing rockets at cities in southern Israel, the UN said.

Israel, which has refused to co-operate with the investigation, rejected the report's conclusion.

"The mandate of the mission and the resolution establishing it prejudged the outcome of any investigation, gave legitimacy to the Hamas terrorist organization and disregarded the deliberate Hamas strategy of using Palestinian civilians as cover for launching terrorist attacks," Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement distributed by the country's mission to the UN in Geneva.

The Palestinian group Hamas rules Gaza and has been accused by Israel of using human shields during the conflict, in which almost 1,400 Palestinians were killed — many of them civilians.

"Notwithstanding its reservations, Israel will read the report carefully," the Foreign Ministry said, noting that the Israeli Defence Force has examined more than 100 allegations regarding the conduct of its forces during the Gaza operation, resulting in 23 criminal investigations.

The 575-page report, which was released ahead of its presentation to the UN Human Rights Council later this month, said Israel's attacks in the Samouni neighbourhood of Zeitoun, south of Gaza City, including the shelling of a house where soldiers had forced Palestinian civilians to assemble, amounted to war crimes.

It found that seven incidents where civilians were shot while leaving their homes trying to run for safety, waving white flags and sometimes even following Israeli instructions, as well as the targeting of a mosque at prayer time, killing 15 people, were also war crimes.

A "direct and intentional attack" on the Al Quds Hospital and an adjacent ambulance depot in Gaza City "may constitute war crimes," the report said.

Several Palestinians told the mission they were used as human shields by the Israeli forces, the report said, noting the case of Majdi Abd Rabbo, a 39-year-old intelligence officer of the Palestinian authority who was forced to walk ahead of the troops as they searched his and his neighbour's house. Rabbo was forced to undress down to his underwear in front of the soldiers and his sons had to strip naked, the report said.

On the Palestinian side the report found that armed groups firing rockets into southern Israel from Gaza failed to distinguish between military targets and the civilian population.

"Where there is no intended military target and the rockets and mortars are launched into civilian areas, they constitute a deliberate attack against the civilian population," the report found.

"These actions would constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity."

Palestinian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

© The Canadian Press, 2009

excerpts from human rights watch report:
Civilian Deaths and Injuries in Israel from Palestinian Rockets

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/84867/section/5

Palestinian armed groups have fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israeli territory since 2001,[12] including nearly 2,700 rockets from September 2005 through May 2007,[13] and more than 1750 rockets in 2008 alone.[14] These attacks virtually stopped during the first four months of a six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect on June 19, 2008, but resumed after Israeli forces killed six Palestinian fighters during an incursion into Gaza on November 4, 2008.[15] From November 5 to the formal end of the six-month ceasefire on December 19, 2008, armed groups fired 203 rockets. From December 19 to December 26, the day before Israel began major military operations, armed groups fired 66 rockets.[16]

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Human Rights Watch that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip fired approximately 650 rockets between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009, when major hostilities in Gaza ceased.[17] The IDF Spokesman’s Office also referred Human Rights Watch to the website of an Israeli organization, which recorded that 570 rockets had landed in Israel during the period.[18] During this time, more than 90 rockets fell on the city of Sderot alone.[19] Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades claim to have fired 820 rockets at Israel during this period.[20] According to the International Crisis Group, Hamas “coordinated the other militias who fought” during the three weeks of major military operations, including the military wings of Islamic Jihad and of the PFLP, and the Ayman Juda and Mujahidin Brigades, which are affiliated with the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades.

Armed groups had fired 100 rockets between the end of major military operations on January 18 and April 27, 2009, according to one Israeli source, but only five of these rockets were launched since March 16.[21]
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From the first rocket launches from Gaza in 2001 to May 2009, rocket attacks have killed 15 civilians in Israel, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; in addition, a rocket attack in 2005 killed a Chinese man and two Palestinian men working at an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip.

"I have no idea why I am even bothering to answer you."

- are you asking for my gratitude or merely basking in the warm glow of your false sense of superiority?


"an allout assault such as Israel mounted to stop the bombardment they endured for longer than any nation I know of would have tolerated naked aggression"

- rocket attacks on israel civilians are naked aggression, just as israel's attacks on lebanese civilians are naked aggression: neither one justifies the other...would you care to know how many victims israel has endured as a result of those rocket attacks? according to israel's ministry of foreign affairs, during the invasion and occupation of lebanon in 2006, hezbollah rockets killed 119 IDF soldiers and 39 israeli civilians:

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The tit for tat wars and fightings in these disputed territories is only a part of the histoty of many other disputed territory. Warfare is only a way of life in both Israeli and Arab camps.

Did the Jews ever abandon Israel? After WWII, did Europe want the surviving Jews? Remember well that much Jewish land had been taken over by Gentiles during Hitler`s imprisonment of Jews on the continent. There was little else for large numbers of Jews to do but migrate to Israel.



No especially superior stances from me; just fundamentals. I`m not even inclined to drop my support for Israel`s right of return and the right to be recognized in exchange for a promise of cheap abundant oil..........




Who beats the Hell out of whom over there is no real concern of mine.

"Who beats the Hell out of whom over there is no real concern of mine."

- then why do you decry the rocket attacks on israel that killed a couple dozen civilians over the past decade while congratulating israel on it's careful restraint for killing hundreds of civilians in just a few weeks? it seems like your lack of concern is limited to palestinian civilians

Israel rejects UN call for probe
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 16, 2009
CBC News

Israel will not appoint an independent inquiry into its conduct in the Gaza conflict, defying a United Nations finding that it should do so, officials said Wednesday in Jerusalem.

A UN team, headed by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, concluded Tuesday that both Israel and Gaza's Islamic Hamas "committed actions amounting to war crimes, possible crimes against humanity" during the Dec. 27-Jan. 18 conflict.

The report also urged both sides to launch their own probes into the conflict within three months, and to follow that up with court action. If either side refused, the report said the UN should refer the evidence for prosecution to the International Criminal Court within six months.

But foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel would try to block the case from being referred to the court by diplomatic means.

Israel launched the offensive last December to quash Palestinian militants in Gaza who had bombarded southern Israel for years with rocket and mortar fire.

While harshly critical of Israel, the report also faulted Hamas for firing rockets into southern Israel without distinguishing between military targets and the civilian population.

Hamas officials welcomed its harsh condemnation of Israel and brushed off criticism of the Palestinian militants. About 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, including civilians on both sides, were killed in the conflict.

israel's 108 to 1 kill ratio is better than what the united states achieved during the vietnam war...careful INDEED!

UN Inquiry Finds Israel “Punished and Terrorized” Palestinian Civilians, Committed War Crimes During Gaza Assault
Goldstone-web

A United Nations fact-finding mission has found Israel “punished and terrorized” civilians in its three-week assault on Gaza earlier this year and cited strong evidence that Israeli forces committed “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions. More than 1,400 Palestinians—about a third of them women and children—were killed in the assault. We get analysis from author and Israel-Palestine scholar Norman Finkelstein. [includes rush transcript]

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/16/un_inquiry_finds_israel_punished_and

Honestly? I would say that I support Israel`s right to soverignty because I cannot side with my mortal enemies` goals and ambitions. Only an idiot or an ambitious man would be so stupid.

I can't wait to see the answer:

How are the Palestinians your mortal enemies?