9 thoughts on “Palestinians Cave to U.S. Pressure and Suspend Gaza Goldstone Inquiry – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. This news ruined my day, nothing will change after this decision. Israel won’t start any peace deals in appreciation for ignoring this report, and hell even if they did make any progress it would be made with the blood of Gaza being ignored. Fatah is making themselves look worse every day in the eyes of Palestinians, such a cowardly move. I wonder how much aid Hilary said she’d cut off if they went along with the report.

  2. Here is a good explanation of the double game the Palestinian Authority is playing:

    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1254393079445&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

    It is important to remember that the majority of the operating budget of the Palestinian Authority comes from handouts by the US and EU and the US can, from time to time flex its muscles and get the PA to do what it wants. So it should not come as any suprise that the PA will back down on a “matter of principle” like this.

    It is precisely because most Israelis have, 16 years after Oslo, begun to understand this double game that they have lost faith in “the peace process”.

  3. No matter how obsequious the PA and the American administration are to Israel, it is never, ever enough.

  4. Jon Schwarz over at “A Tiny Revolution” is fond of talking about “the iron law of institutions”. The iron law is that people in a given institution will do anything to keep power within that institution, even if they have to harm the institution to do it.

    Once stated, you can see this at work all the time. It’s maybe not quite an iron law, as not everyone acts like this all the time. But it’s what the PA is doing. Their one source of real power within their society is their relatively friendly relationship with the US and the Israeli government, and so they’re willing to sell the Gazans down the river to maintain it. They probably see Hamas as a bigger threat than Israel.

    Interesting that the ambassador mentions Hamas’s crimes, because the report also talks about PA abuses towards fellow Palestinians.

  5. “The Americans argued that pushing the report now would derail the Middle East peace process that they are trying to revive, diplomats said.”
    If this is a joke, I am not laughing! Wonder, what the Palestinian people specially the Gazans think of this so called “trying to revive the peace process” when their misery is getting worse!

    “UN: number of `abject poor’ in Gaza triples”
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091001/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_gaza_poverty

  6. I’m thinking of Dr. Mirela Siderer whose presence left Goldstone shaken. And all the Israeli victims of Hamas aggression who were denied justice. Goldstone got hoist on his own petard and his travesty of an inquiry got buried – for good.

    Israel’s friends need to stand behind the Jewish State while it is under a sustained political assault by its enemies. The Palestinians can attack Israel at the UN or they can have its cooperation in peace. They should not expect to have both. And there’s the chutzpah of Fatah leading the charge on behalf of Hamas which only two years ago seized power by a coup d’etat in Gaza and which is only in power in Yesha today thanks to the IDF. That shows how little Israel’s erstwhile “peace partner” appreciates its efforts to preserve the life of what should be a moderate Palestinian regime but isn’t.

    There are two things that are clear: Israel can expect no justice from the international community and there will be no peace with the Palestinian Arabs for the foreseeable future.

  7. NO ONE wanted the Goldstone report active — not the Israelis, not the Palestinians, and certainly not the US. Here’s why (from a post I made earlier on another thread more than a week ago):
    ___

    There is a strong recent trend in the world toward rule of law — hence the UN tribunals on Rwanda and Yugoslavia, and the ICC. Israel and the US signed the Rome Statute (agreeing to be bound by the ICC) but later refused to ratify. In general, if you sign, you agree to be bound even without ratification, UNLESS you make clear you don’t want to be bound. The US and Israel did that in 2002. That’s apparently the status of Israel now. Hamas and the PA, as non-states, can’t sign the Rome Statute, but the treaty allows for ad hoc recognition of non-state “actors” who bring complaints to the ICC. Hamas did that in February. Thus, there is agreement the much of the international law community that actions of both sides in the Gaza war can land in the ICC. I would go even further. I also would like US officials who gave Israel an “expanded blank check” on use of weapons with US technology to defend themselves at the ICC.

    Thus, NOTHING was as scary to the criminals of both sides, and their financial and weapons-enablers (including the US and Iran), as the Goldstone Report. It is a loose cannon, but one with a laser-guided aim at ALL the bad guys.

    If active peace negotiations do not materialize over the next few months, I think a focus on getting the report acted upon would certainly be worthwhile.

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