Judge Goldstone's Bogus Test of War Time Culpability
By LYNDA BURSTEIN BRAYER
Wikileaks has once again brought attention to the question of Israel's war crime culpability in the military “Operation Cast Lead” it conducted from 27th Dec 2008 - 18th Jan 2009, a period of twenty three days, against the Palestinian population living in the Gaza Strip. The American Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, unsuccessfully tried to prevent a commission of inquiry into this war because of an obvious finding of culpability. Now, more that one and a half years later, Justice Goldstone, the head of that UN Commission seeks to introduce a peculiar twist into his original findings by raising the question of Israel's intentions with respect to the killing of Palestinian civilians during that war.
Approximately 1,417 Palestinian civilians and 9 Israeli soldiers were killed by Israeli fire, whilst one soldier and three civilians were killed by Palestinians. The Israeli war machine also caused massive material loss, damage and destruction in Gaza, estimated at a cost of 2 billion dollars, while Israel suffered almost no damage. Justice Goldstone informs the reader that now he would write a different report with respect to Israel, but not to the Palestinians, in which he would seriously minimize its culpability. So how does he come to such a conclusion?
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