A committee of inquiry is needed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) September 17, 2009 - 12:00am

The report by the commission headed by Judge Richard Goldstone on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza is one of the most serious indictments ever made against the government and the military in Israel. The report states that during the operation Israel committed war crimes and significant violations of international law.

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Aluf Benn / In wake of UN Gaza probe, how can Israel go to war again?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - September 16, 2009 - 12:00am

The United Nations' fact-finding mission into the Gaza offensive describes Israel as perpetrating war crimes - a police state which persecutes minorities - and tars the Palestinian leadership in the Gaza Strip and West Bank with similar accusations. If its findings and recommendations are accepted, the International Criminal Court in The Hague could call a summit meeting between the leaders of Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority on the defendants' stand.

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Inquiry Finds Gaza War Crimes From Both Sides
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Neil MacFarquhar - September 16, 2009 - 12:00am

A United Nations fact-finding mission investigating the three-week war in Gaza last winter issued a highly critical report on Tuesday detailing what it called extensive evidence that both Israel and Palestinian militant groups took actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.

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Israelis who spoke at Goldstone committee: State must wake up
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Daniel Edelson - September 16, 2009 - 12:00am

The State of Israel officially condemned on Tuesday the Goldstone Report which accuses the IDF of committing war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, but the Israelis that testified before the special UN-appointed inquiry commission actually welcomed the harsh report, and urged the government not to ignore its conclusions. "Israel should wake up and take it upon itself to investigate the claims," said Attorney Majd Bader, who testified before the committee on behalf of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.

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UN seeks close Gaza scrutiny
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Barbara Plett - September 16, 2009 - 12:00am

The probe, headed by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone, concludes that Israel "committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during its Gaza offensive in December last year. It asks the UN Security Council to call on Israel to conduct "appropriate investigations," to monitor them, and to refer the matter to the ICC if they're deemed not to meet international standards. The report found that the firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups also amounted to war crimes, and called for a similar process of accountability for the Gaza authorities.

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Israel, Jewish groups seek to discredit new U.N. report on Gaza war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - September 16, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel's government and its supporters are promoting a one-sentence strategy to counter a 574-page U.N. report on last winter's Israel-Hamas war in Gaza: Consider the source. "The same U.N. that allows the president of a country to announce on a podium its aspiration to destroy the State of Israel has no right to teach us about morality," Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said, referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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Goldstone's daughter: My father's participation softened UN Gaza report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
September 16, 2009 - 12:00am

Had Richard Goldstone not served as the head of the UN inquiry into the Gaza war, the accusations against Israel would have been harsher, Goldstone's daughter, Nicole, said in an interview conducted in Hebrew with Army Radio on Wednesday. "My father took on this job because he thought he is doing the best thing for peace, for everyone, and also for Israel," Nicole Goldstone told Army Radio. She added that her father wrestled with the decision to take on the task. "It wasn't easy [for him]," Nicole Goldstone said. "My father did not expect to see and hear what he saw and heard."

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Rattling the Cage: A wake-up call from Judge Goldstone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) September 16, 2009 - 12:00am

Maybe this will do it. Maybe the Goldstone report on Operation Cast Lead will be the thing that finally puts the fear of God into Israeli society, that shocks this country into deciding once and for all that the occupation must come to an end - for our sake if no one else's.

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Israel threatened with international law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - September 15, 2009 - 12:00am

Controversy surrounded Richard Goldstone's investigation for the UN Human Rights Council into the Gaza war from the very start, with Israel flatly refusing to co-operate because it regarded it as irredeemably biased. But Palestinians and their supporters will see it as an authoritative if long overdue indictment.

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Israel PM, Egypt president to talk peace in Cairo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
by Patrick Moser - September 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel's hawkish premier heads to Cairo on Sunday for talks focused on a US-led push to revive the Middle East peace process amid charges that his settlement policies are harming the efforts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will "discuss the peace process and issues of mutual concern," a spokesman for the premier said. Netanyahu "is looking forward to a good meeting with the Egyptian president," the spokesman said without giving further details.

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