Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Jack lo squartatore alla guida di Scotland Yard

http://ow.ly/rO9Q
From The Times
September 29, 2009
A farcical attempt to paint Israel black
The UN Human Rights Council’s report into the Gaza conflict is a
shamefully biased document
Ron Prosor
In the history of international organisations it is hard to conceive
of an institution less fit for purpose than the absurdly titled UN
Human Rights Council.
Since its inception in 2006, the UNHRC has included such champions of
liberal values as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Cuba. There is no
doubting the comic value of such membership. Analogies spring to mind
of Jack the Ripper leading a disciplinary inquiry at Scotland Yard, or
Dr Harold Shipman chairing a panel discussion on medical care for the
elderly. Yet for Israel, on the receiving end of this surreal
hypocrisy, it is no laughing matter.
The latest example of its hypocrisy is the 575-page Goldstone report
into the Gaza conflict at the beginning of this year. Israel, a
democracy with an unquestionably free press and meticulously
independent judiciary, faces a threat from terrorism unique in its
intensity. Yet its obligations to defend its citizens from terror are
being scrutinised, delegitimised and condemned by states in which the
routine price of dissent is imprisonment without trial, torture or
execution.
It is impossible to escape the obsession of the Human Rights Council
(and I chuckle every time I write its name) with Israel. In three
years, it has issued 25 resolutions against individual states: 20 of
them targeted Israel. Basic maths suggests that Israel, a tiny
democracy permanently threatened by dictatorships and terrorists, is
guilty of 80 per cent of the world’s human rights offences. This is
ridiculous, as is a human rights body with member states that still
view public beheadings as a wholesome leisure activity.
The UNHRC’s glaring spotlight on Israel blinds it to its official
purpose: it is oblivious to the one million displaced people in
Somalia, one million displaced in Pakistan or the 300,000 Tamil
civilians currently languishing in Sri Lanka. In Darfur Sudan is
responsible for at least 400,000 deaths. Yet the council has never
condemned the Sudanese Government, and in fact praised it for its “co-
operation”.
The UNHRC also remains silent over the systematic rape and torture of
pro-democracy activists protesting against the stolen election in
Iran. That’s unsurprising. Last week, President Ahmadinejad once again
spewed out an anti-Semitic rant at the UN General Assembly. But in
April he was the keynote speaker of the UNHRC in Geneva. As the UN
passes Mr Ahmadinejad the microphone, his regime recently silenced the
leader of the Iranian bus workers’ union by quite literally slashing
his tongue.
The Goldstone report’s lack of credibility has not gone unnoticed in
all quarters. Canada, Japan and the EU all refused to support Justice
Richard Goldstone’s mission from the start. Even Switzerland, which
has often lavished red-carpet treatment on tyrants, acknowledged that
the anti-Israel bigotry of Goldstone’s team made it unsupportable.
Mary Robinson, the former Irish President and a fierce critic of
Israel, described Goldstone’s mandate as “guided not by human rights
but by politics”.
It is no surprise, therefore, that the report wilfully ignores the
context of Operation Cast Lead. Israeli civilians were battered for
eight years by thousands of missiles from Gaza. Israel withdrew from
Gaza in 2005, hoping the missiles would stop. Instead, the attacks
increased, escalating further when Hamas seized power in a brutal coup
in 2007. With a million Israelis under fire, and Hamas’s range
increasing, Israel did what any democratic state would do. It defended
its citizens.
Israel did its utmost to direct Palestinian civilians out of harm’s
way. But the report overlooks the Israeli Army’s warning leaflets,
text messages and daily humanitarian pauses in the fighting.
Most shamefully of all, the UNHRC has whitewashed the illegal tactics
of Hamas. Hamas used mosques as arsenals, playgrounds as rocket launch
pads and hospitals as battle command centres. Despite a wealth of
video and eyewitness evidence, Goldstone failed to condemn these
crimes. Ludicrously, Goldstone defines members of Hamas’s police force
as “civilians”, despite their role in implementing and enforcing
Hamas’s bloody takeover of Gaza.
The Goldstone report’s assertion that the Israeli courts cannot be
trusted is as dishonest as it is insulting. Israel’s legal system
holds its army to account at least as thoroughly as any in the free
world. Israeli courts have scrutinised previous military operations,
and mistakes or wrongdoing have been punished at the highest levels.
Legal investigations into the war in Gaza are already under way.
Difficult issues, including the use of white phosphorus, as reported
by The Times, will not be ignored. But Israel does not need lectures
in transparent, democratic legal process from a report mandated by
dictatorships.
This report undermines the challenges faced anywhere in the world
where accountable armies of democracies confront unaccountable
terrorists shielding behind civilians. Nato forces in Afghanistan face
a similar problem. On this occasion, it is Israel that has been
singled out. But British soldiers on the front line against terror in
Afghanistan might also find themselves pursued by a deranged Gaddafi,
an unhinged Ahmadinejad or their friends at the UN Human Rights
Council.
The UNHRC will meet in Geneva today to congratulate itself on its
latest triumph in hypocrisy. For the world’s worst dictators and
terrorists, the UNHRC is nothing but a fancy-dress party with a
judicial theme. Sadly, on this occasion Richard Goldstone was willing
to lend them his costume.
Ron Prosor is the Israeli Ambassador to the UK

 Ron Prosor is the Israeli Ambassador to the UK
non siete sereni. Di solito chi sa di avere ragione non ha bisogno di
ripeterselo 100 volte al giorno

Nicola Bombacci ha scritto:
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Dipende. Quando si parla con dei rincoglioniti, la ripetizione aiuta.
Tb (bieco illuminista)
-- 
"A vote is like a rifle, it's usefulness depends upon the character of
the user."
~ Theodore Roosevelt

 Dipende.
no.

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Sì.
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