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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Russia says won't let Goldstone Report reach Hague
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Sofer - October 19, 2009 - 12:00am

Russia has made it clear to Israel that it will oppose a Goldstone Report discussion at the United Nations Security Council or at the International Criminal Court in Hague, although its representatives voted in favor of adopting the report accusing the Jewish state of committing war crimes at the UN Human Rights Council, Foreign Ministry officials told Ynet on Sunday night.

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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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Goldstone: Israel could stop report with open inquiry
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - October 18, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel could stop the Goldstone report process if it openly investigated its army's conduct in the Gaza War, Richard Goldstone said. "If the Israeli government set up an appropriate investigation it would really be the end of the matter," said Goldstone, the former South African judge and international human rights prosecutor who authored the report alleging war crimes by both sides in last winter's war between Israel and Hamas. "The heart of the report would become pretty irrelevant if there was an open, bonafide investigation."

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U.N. Panel Backs Gaza Report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Colum Lynch, Howard Schneider - October 17, 2009 - 12:00am

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday endorsed a controversial report on alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip, advancing a process that has roiled Palestinian politics and threatens to further derail the Middle East peace process. The vote drew condemnation from Israel's main political parties, while both the Islamist Hamas movement and the Palestinian Authority hailed the decision.

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UN vote to endorse Goldstone report increases pressure on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - October 16, 2009 - 12:00am

The United Nations Human Rights Council's decision Friday to adopt the controversial Goldstone report on the Gaza war increases the pressure on Israel to conduct its own investigation into alleged war crimes. The council voted 25-to-6, with 11 abstentions, to endorse the report, which calls for both Israel and Hamas to investigate its allegations within the next few months. If either side fails to comply – and Israel has so far refused to do so – the report calls for the UN Security Council to take up the matter and consider referring it to the UN's International Criminal Court.

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