Goldstone Report 'Born in Hate'

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev had harsh words for the Goldstone Report on Wednesday, telling the U.N. General Assembly the document that accused Israel of committing war crimes during its counterterrorist operation in Gaza last winter had been "conceived in hate."

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Defending Israel's right to protect itself from the constant barrage of rocket attacks that had emanated from Gaza for years prior to the counterterrorist Operation Cast Lead launched by the IDF on December 27, 2008, Shalev told the international body that the fact-finding mission that authored the report was a "politicized body with predetermined conclusions."

The committee led by retired South African Judge Richard Goldstone, she said, had from its inception been dispatched with a "öne-sided mandate" and had ended that mission with a report "conceived in hate and executed in sin."

If the document is endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Security Council, it may be advanced to the International Criminal Court at The Hague in accordance with the recommendations laid out in the report. If tehissues reaches the court, it will use the report as evidence in a trial against Israel and Israeli officials on charges of having committed war crimes and possibly on charges of having committed crimes against humanity during Operation Cast Lead.

Condolences for Victims of Terror - Elsewhere

Shalev began her address by conveying the condolences of the government and the people of Israel to the "most recent victims of terrorism"— more than 150 innocent men, women and children slaughtered in Baghdad by suicide terrorists – a sharp reminder that slaughter and terrorism has taken its toll in many places in the Middle East, not only in Israel.

"Our sorrow is with the more than 100 victims of the brutal terrorist attacks in Peshawar and Rawalpindi, Pakistan," she continued. "Our grief is with the families of the six United Nations employees – working in the name of peace – who were murdered by terrorists in Kabul [Afghanistan]," she told the General Assembly. Soldiers from the U.S. and other Western nations continue to be deployed in Iraq as well as Afghanistan; some areas of Pakistan have become harbors of safety for terrorists who launch attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.

UN 'Chose Again to Detach Itself'

"Yet… rather than confronting terrorism, the General Assembly chose again to detach itself from reality," Shalev lamented. "Rather than discuss how to better stop terrorist groups who deliberately target civilians, this body launches yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel. .

"This same Human Rights Council rejected any investigation regarding the constant firing of 12,000 rockets and mortarts by Hamas, over eights years, on towns and villages in Israel. The basic human rights of nearly one million Israeli citizens did not matter then. Are we now to believe that the Council's latest incarnation is honest, objective and fair?"

Israel's Vision of Peace

Shalev told the General Assembly, "Israel believes in a vision of peace. We believe in the vision established by the United Nations of two states for two peoples. But the Goldstone Report and this debate do not promote peace. They damage any effort to revitalize negotiations in our region. They deny Israel's right of self-defense."

Shalev underscored the need for a quid pro quo in any demand for Israel to make further concessions to the Palestinian Authority. "If Israel is asked to make concessions for peace we must be assured of the right to defend ourselves," she stated. "We must know that terrorists will not have impunity as they turn our gestures of peace into weapons of war."