WASHINGTON – The US Congress stands to vote on a bipartisan bill calling on US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to categorically negate the UN's Goldstone Report on
the Gaza war.
The Republican-Democrat motion is the brainchild of Congressmen Howard Berman (D) chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Congresswoman Illeana Ross-Lehtinen (R).
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Following Washington Post interview, Netanyahu's office issues clarification: Bibi did not back independent inquiry into Gaza war to look into Goldstone Report charges |
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It was backed by Democrat Congressmen Gary Ackerman and his Republican college Dan Barton, who hold senior positions on the House Subcommittee on the Middle East.
The bill noted the Goldstone Report's one-sided call to probe alleged human rights violation by Israel,
while completely ignoring "thousands of rocket attacks on Israel," by Hamas and
other Gaza groups for the eight years prior to the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
The motion further quotes Richard Goldstone himself, using excerpts of an interview he gave the Jewish daily Forward, in which he admits that the report's findings are inadmissible in court.
The joint motion finds that the Goldstone Report negates Israel's right to self-defense and that by failing to determine that Hamas and other terror groups are also to blame for war crimes, it was de facto swayed by the Islamist group's misrepresentation of the facts.
The House is expected to vote in favor of the bill and rule the Goldstone Report as a "mirror of the UN's one-sided position against Israel," and as one used by Israel's enemies to excuse their operations.
Israel is under tremendous international pressure to further probe the events of Operation Cast Lead.
Special US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell claims the Goldstone Report is one of the main reasons the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have yet to resume.
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