Israel's missed opportunity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Richard Goldstone - (Opinion) October 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Five weeks after the release of the report of the fact-finding mission on Gaza, there has been no attempt by any of its critics to come to grips with its substance. It has been fulsomely approved by those whose interests it is thought to serve and rejected by those of the opposite view. Those who attack it do so too often by making personal attacks on its authors' motives and those who approve it rely on its authors' reputations.

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Israel Cabinet split over calls for war inquiry
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - October 21, 2009 - 12:00am

A meeting of Israel's inner security cabinet yesterday left ministers split over whether to yield to growing diplomatic pressure to hold a major public investigation to deflect the findings of the UN's Goldstone report on last winter's war in Gaza. The meeting postponed any decision on an independent investigation as it emerged that the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, has so far led opposition to the setting up of an inquiry.

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Accountability: core of Goldstone's report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) October 21, 2009 - 12:00am

The Goldstone Report on the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that was released by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) late last month generated a brief flash of publicity because it criticized Israel and Hamas over conduct in the war that could be classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The deeper and wider implications of the report, however, have not been sufficiently discussed or acted upon, which is a shame.

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Israel’s Fear of the Goldstone Report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Bilal Hassen - October 20, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian and Arab public campaign against the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) withdrawal of the request to discuss Judge Richard Goldstone’s report and to transfer it to the UN Security Council or the International Court of Justice in The Hague had a number of various outcomes. A negative outcome is that it weakened the PA’s reputation and status, and even destabilized its internal status, especially after it was heavily criticised by its own apparatuses and cadres.

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Time and again, US backs Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Linda Heard - October 20, 2009 - 12:00am

Imagine that heavily-armed neighbourhood thieves break into your house, steal your property and shoot a family member. Naturally, you would call law enforcement. You know the names of the criminals and expect the police to arrest them. But what if the police hear the murderers' names, look embarrassed, shrug their shoulders, say ‘sorry, can't help you,' and simply walk away?

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Tide is turning against Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Linda Heard - (Opinion) October 20, 2009 - 12:00am

Now even the United Nations Human Rights Council is “anti-Semitic.” Well, that’s the view of Israel’s Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is outraged that the body rubber-stamped the Goldstone Report on war crimes committed in Gaza. Some years ago, that accusation would have had enormous shock-value, whereas, nowadays, the label has been so propagandized the only thing it elicits is a yawn.

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Why Israel failed in the Gaza war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yehezkel Dror - (Opinion) October 19, 2009 - 12:00am

"Operation Cast Lead was the most planned operation in the annals of Israel's wars," Aluf Benn wrote in these pages over the weekend ("The noose tightens," October 16). Heaven help us for such planning, which was technically sophisticated yet one-dimensional.

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A Gaza war resolution that resolves nothing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
October 19, 2009 - 12:00am

The recent UN condemnation of Israel brings to mind the image of Nero fiddling away while Rome burned. In the aftermath of the Gaza war, there can be little doubt that war crimes were committed – crimes that will eventually have to be answered for – but the UN Human Rights Council’s vote on Friday is a variation on a very old tune that has done little to assuage the flames in the Middle East. Indeed, by pushing one-sided recriminations into the Security Council at this juncture, the recent resolution makes justice more difficult to attain and peace a more distant prospect.

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Abbas' indecision benefits Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - October 19, 2009 - 12:00am

The Goldstone Commission's report about the Gaza war, which was published by the UN last month, has generated intense debates about how to handle its findings and its recommendations, both in the corridors of the United Nations and beyond.

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PA on a slippery slope
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) October 19, 2009 - 12:00am

IT is, of course, all the fault of Judge Richard Goldstone. He is to blame for the trouble we are having at the UN, both in New York and in Geneva. Now he is to blame also for the existential danger facing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). When the Goldstone Report was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, the Israeli government exerted heavy pressure on the US. The US exerted heavy pressure on Abbas. Abbas gave in and instructed his representative in Geneva to withdraw his request for a debate.

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