Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
who launched the Israeli operation in Gaza
last winter, harshly attacked the United Nations report
into Operation Cast Lead, which he defined as "part of an offensive by hypocritical and over-righteous bodies."
The report, authored by Judge Richard Goldstone, accuses Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza.
"Sometimes there are hypocritical attacks against countries fighting terror. The criticism must be put in the right place, and the war on terrorists must be continued," the former prime minister said Thursday during an inauguration of a Jerusalem monument in memory of the victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
The ceremony was attended by international guests, ministers, Knesset members and families of the attacks' victims.
Olmert noted that "countries fighting terror sometimes hurt uninvolved civilians, but this is not their goal or their desire."
Olmert in Jerusalem on Thursday (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
On Wednesday, President Peres,
who is currently visiting Brazil,
also commented on the report. "The countries that voted for the report made a mistake," he said. "The investigation that should be held in the matter of the Goldstone Report should be on the one heading it. He is a small technocrat, a man who has no sense of justice, and he comes and makes one-sided declarations to hurt Israel."
Regarding the demand to probe the report's findings, Peres said, "Israel checks itself and investigates itself after every war."
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during the opening of the Knesset's winter session, "We will not let Ehud Olmert, (former Foreign Minister) Tzipi Livni and (Defense Minister) Ehud Barak, who sent our sons to war, reach the Hague International Criminal Court."
"The right for a Jewish state and the right for self-defense are two of the foundations of our people's existence," the prime minister said at the start of his speech. "These two rights are interlocked. Without a state of our own, we won't be able to defend ourselves, and without the ability to defend ourselves we won’t be able to defend the State.
"These basic rights of the people of Israel are under an ongoing attack, an attack which has increased since the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead. Our first mission is to ward off this attack," the prime minister said.
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