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Wow, when a nation like Libya makes your human rights record look bad, you know you’ve hit rock bottom. Barack Obama, Mahmoud Abbas and Bibi Netanyahu thought they were pretty deft at burying the Goldstone Report in Geneva a few days ago. But they neglected a few inconvenient facts, chief among them that if you try to suppress an idea whose time has come it will come back to bite you. That is true of Goldstone.
Libya not only sits on the Security Council, it also is president of the General Assembly. So that means that Qaddafi has the U.S. over a boulder twice over. If the U.S. vetoes Security Council consideration of the Report, Libya can introduce it before the General Assembly, where we don’t have veto. If Abbas hadn’t singed himself so badly in mishandling this affair, he might’ve been able to weasel out of this by telling Libya to take a hike. But Hamas already has his ass in a sling over his betrayal of the Gazans. He can’t very well dump Goldstone twice.
So Obama may have the Goldstone nightmare return to haunt him in the Security Council. It might even be passed by the General Assembly. So much for our president’s supposed political adeptness. Goldstone is the report that will not die. This time Obama has a chance to handle it better than he did in Geneva. Will he?
Related posts:
- UN Human Rights Council Endorses Goldstone Report
- Goldstone Report Arises from Dead
- U.S. Stifling of Goldstone Report, Yet Another Major Political Gaffe
- Israel’s Counter-Attack on Goldstone Report
- Human Rights Watch Criticizes U.S. for Torpedoing Goldstone Report
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When a nation like Libya starts championing a “human rights” issue, it points to the fallacious nature of the “human rights” issue. It’s antisemitic politics and you’re eating it up.
Or so you claim…
Antisemitic? This is so damn idiotic. If I had a nickel for every time a Zionist cried about ‘hatred’ (Orwellian) I’d be rich.
I wish it was some other country besides Libya doing this, though, because you know how that association (Qaddafi supports Goldstone report) is going to be played here in the US.
The Obama Administration does not want the matter raised at the Security council because it will be severely embarrassed if it does veto any resolution. Its credibility in the Arab/Muslim world will be shot and its power over Israel will actually be reduced. (If it protects Israel under such adverse circumstances what reason could it provide in the future for not doing so when the case against Israel would not be as strong?) On the other hand there are important precedents for the US’s own armed forces behaviour in the Goldstone report, which the US would like to ignore.
It may well be the case that the US will pressure Israel to conduct its own independent inquiry. As that is one of the Goldstone recommendation it will postpone the problem for six months, by which time the UN Human Rights body could take up the issue ahead of the SC.
Also, under the Rome Statute countries must get a chance to prosecute locally before the ICC can act, so the “recommendation” is required.
BTW, I’m on a long trip to Europe and have been slogging through the report in airports and on flights. If you don’t have the time to read the whole 600 pages, at least do the summary material in the first 40 or so.
It evaluates evidence carefully and comes down hard on Hamas for some things as well — unlike most of the people who post to this list. But even if it didn’t, I do not see where Israel’s claim of bias or sloppiness has any basis whatsoever. READ THE REPORT.
The subject isn’t Hamas, so we’re not “coming down hard” on them. And I agree, I don’t see where Israel can claim any unfairness in the report, especially when it comes after so many other reports saying pretty much the same things. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck…
To my mind, most of the people who came out immediately after its release claiming this bias on Goldstone’s part could not possibly have read the report so quickly. The noise is purely political, the hasbara is in full swing working 24-7 to bury the report, and AIPAC is knocking down doors in Washington and calling in favors.
Whether any legal action against Israel comes of it or not, I think it is the beginning of the end of Israeli mass violence against Palestinians; I certainly hope so.
Yes, it would be wonderful if one of those countries with an absolutely impeccable record in the area of human rights stretching back for centuries, like the United States, Britain Germany or France would promote the protection of defenceless Palestinian civilians. But since they seem strangely reluctant to do so, I have to say go Libya!
The thing is, Qaddafi is a nutjob. Recently he tried to go before the UN recently and abolish Switzerland. Apparently this was in retaliation for the arrest of his son and daughter-in-law in Switzerland last year on charges of beating their servants.
The Palestinians need Qaddafi’s help like a hole in the head. Israel will turn the whole thing into a circus, and come out smelling like a rose – as always.
“Israel will turn the whole thing into a circus, and come out smelling like a rose – as always.”
I have to say that this is an unusual vision of how Israel alway smells.
They never pay for their crimes against the Palestinian people. Maybe times are changing for Israel. Another tired old cliche – the chickens are coming home to roost.
A vision of how something smells would always be unusual (synaesthesia).
[...] Richard Silverstein sheds light on some interesting facts about Libya’s status at the UN that makes the Goldstone report – which indicts Israel for war crimes – an issue that can’t be easily dispensed with a security council veto from the US. Libya not only sits on the Security Council, it also is president of the General Assembly. So that means that Qaddafi has the U.S. over a boulder twice over. If the U.S. vetoes Security Council consideration of the Report, Libya can introduce it before the General Assembly, where we don’t have veto. If Abbas hadn’t singed himself so badly in mishandling this affair, he might’ve been able to weasel out of this by telling Libya to take a hike. But Hamas already has his ass in a sling over his betrayal of the Gazans. He can’t very well dump Goldstone twice. [...]