Israel Update for October 2009

Bias And Bluster

In a stinging analysis of the Goldstone Commission report published in the Jerusalem Post on October 15, South Africa's current Chief Rabbi, Warren Goldstein, blasted the commission's "biased conclusions." The respected cleric, who is also a human rights attorney, noted that the commission's four members had all pre-judged Israel, charging it early this year with using "excessive force" in its military operation. This judgment came before any of them were named to the UN panel-which he added was probably the very reason they were recruited to serve by the Human Rights Council.

Specifically, three commissioners, including Judge Goldstone, had publicly endorsed an Amnesty International letter issued during the conflict that attacked the Israeli military campaign, stating that "events in Gaza have shocked us to the core." The fourth commissioner, Christine Chinkin, had signed a letter published in the Sunday Times of London which averred that the IDF Cast Lead operation-designed to finally put an end to unprovoked Hamas rocket assaults upon Israeli civilian communities that actually escalated after Israel's painful unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005-"amounts to aggression, not self defense, not least because its assault on Gaza was unnecessary." Such harsh pre-judgments, issued before even one shred of "evidence" was examined by the future commissioners, obviously casts a dark shadow on the body's impartiality and subsequent "findings," wrote Rabbi Goldstein.

The Jewish South African religious leader blasted the UN for "using the superficial veneer of law and legal methodology to give credence and credibility to its anti-Israel agenda." He pointed out that the Goldstone commissioners had spent only 11 days "investigating" the three week Gaza conflict, totally ignoring or vastly downplaying critical events that led up to it, especially the ongoing Hamas rocket blitz which was deliberately designed to kill and maim Israeli civilians. He noted that neither Israel nor Hamas had cooperated with the UN commissioners, meaning its conclusions were largely based on hearsay (Israeli government leaders decided not to give testimony to the commission since the Human Rights Council had made abundantly clear in advance that it was determined to find Israel guilty as charged).

Rabbi Goldstein especially condemned the report for focusing almost exclusively on Israel's military response to eight years of rocket assaults, launched after repeated pleas from Israeli leaders over the years for Hamas to halt it's "terror producing" Kassam attacks, instead of on the Hamas provocations that spurred the operation: "The commission's findings were based on accepting the allegations of only one party to the conflict. It did not try to cross examine or challenge the witnesses in any real way."

The Chief Rabbi's sentiments were echoed in a London Times editorial published the following day. Similarly calling the Goldstone report "biased," it urged all European Union states to reject the report rather than abstaining in the Human Rights Council vote. The editorial stated that there is "no equivalence between the actions of Israel in self-defense and those of Hamas in seeking to destroy it." It called the Human Rights Council a "kangaroo court" that has become "notorious for block voting against Israel." It noted that "Hamas, backed and supplied by Iran, has rejected all attempts to persuade it to recognize Israel, instead relentlessly pursuing the destruction of the Jewish state in the interests of an intolerant pan-Islamic ideology." The editorial also pointed out that "Unlike Israel, Hamas consistently engages in the cowardly practice of using civilians as human shields.

Violence Rocks Jerusalem

Acting as if they had been declared entirely guiltless in the Goldstone report, Hamas went on the warpath in early October after issuing harsh condemnations against Mahmoud Abbas for initially agreeing to delay the Human Rights Council vote. Hamas leaders again denounced the PA chief for meeting and shaking hands with Binyamin Netanyahu in Washington in September, calling for Palestinians to take to the streets to protest Israeli "war crimes" and home building in Jerusalem and the disputed territories.

The situation was exacerbated when Raed Salah, the head of the radical "Islamic Movement" who lives in an Arab town in the Galilee, was arrested in Jerusalem after inciting violent protests against the Jewish state. Despite being released later the same day, his incendiary claims that Israel was attempting to harm Muslim interests and buildings on the Temple Mount significantly added to growing tensions in the city.

An Israeli policeman was stabbed in the neck on October 6 by a Palestinian teenager as he conducted a security search on a bus in the northern part of Jerusalem, and more than a dozen other security personnel were injured as sporadic violence spread later in the week. A soldier was later stabbed by a Palestinian woman. Armed with rocks and broken bottles, Muslim throngs attacked a group of French tourists near the Temple Mount, charging they were actually Jewish settlers disguised as overseas tourists who were attempting to infiltrate Al Aksa mosque-an allegation the shocked visitors strenuously denied. Clashes then spread to several other locations around Israel's capital city.

As a result of the violence, Israeli officials announced they would restrict the number of Muslims allowed on the Temple Mount for prayers on Friday October 9, with men under the age of 50 barred from the holy site. Hamas fiercely denounced the move. Not to be outdone by their Islamic fundamentalist opponents, the PLO Fatah party then called for a general work strike. Fueled by Arab satellite news reports, huge anti-Israel demonstrations were held that day in Lebanon, Syria, Iran and other regional Muslim countries.

Despite the upsurge in violence, Israeli officials later expressed relief that most Palestinians did not heed the Hamas and Fatah calls to take to the streets that Friday in what Hamas termed a "day of rage." They saw this as a hopeful indication that local Arabs are not really seeking a third uprising attrition war at this time. However, security experts warned that with tensions very high, it might not take much to spark off another major period of widespread unrest.

After two weeks of relative calm, clashes again broke out on the Temple Mount in late October as Palestinian Muslims hurled rocks and plastic chairs at Israeli riot police. This followed fresh allegations that Israel was secretly planning to take over daily control of the site. Responding to the violence from his headquarters in Damascus, senior Hamas leader Khaled Meshal declared that "Jerusalem's fate will be decided by jihad, not resistance or negotiations." A Jordanian government minister also poured unnecessary fuel on the fire, declaring that "any further Jewish provocations" on the Temple Mount would "fuel violence in the region and jeopardize peace efforts." Just what Israel was supposedly doing to provoke the Arab rioting was not spelled out.

Muslim officials and Hamas leaders, echoed by the PA and several Arab Knesset members, also charged that Israel was engaged in secret archeological digs under the Temple Mount. The accusation was personally denied to this reporter by the South African-born Israeli archeologist who oversees the Jerusalem District in the government's Antiquities Authority, along with Haifa University Professor Roni Reich, who has conducted many digs near the Old City. Both archeologists told me the Palestinian claims were totally unfounded and politically motivated. PM Netanyahu echoed this, calling the Palestinian claims "patent lies."