"The (Israeli) government's efforts to avoid a thorough and credible investigation of the flotilla affair seem more and more like a farce."

"The conclusions of an ostensible probe are intended to justify retroactively the decision to blockade Gaza, to forcibly stop the Turkish aid flotilla in international waters and to use deadly force on the deck of the Mavi Marmara."

A headline from Gaza or the UN?

No, the above is an editorial from Israel's own Haaretz newspaper


Israel and the Goldstone report

Richard Goldstone is a South African former judge; one of several liberal judges who issued key rulings that undermined apartheid from within the system by tempering the worst effects of the country's racial laws.
Among other important rulings, Goldstone made the Group Areas Act – under which non-whites were banned from living in "whites only" areas – virtually unworkable by restricting evictions. As a result, prosecutions under the act virtually ceased

He headed the influential Goldstone Commission investigations into political violence in South Africa between 1991 and 1994.
His willingness to criticise all sides and discover the truth led to him being dubbed "perhaps the most trusted man, certainly the most trusted member of the white establishment" in South Africa.

Goldstone's work investigating violence led directly to him being nominated to serve as the first chief prosecutor of the United Nations (UN) International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda from August 1994 to September 1996.
He prosecuted a number of key war crimes suspects, notably the Bosnian Serb political and military leaders, Radovan Karadžiæ and Ratko Mladiæ.
On his return to South Africa he took up a seat on the newly-established Constitutional Court of South Africa, to which he had been nominated by President Nelson Mandela

In 2009 Goldstone led an independent fact-finding mission created by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations related to the Gaza War.
The mission's findings that Israel and Hamas had both committed serious violations of the laws of war and acts that amounted to crimes against humanity, saying that the conflict dominated by Israel's military superiority had killed 1,400 Palestinians and caused widespread damage to properties in Gaza.

Israel decided in advance that "it seemed clear beyond any doubt that the initiative was motivated by a political agenda and not concern for human rights", and decided not to cooperate

The 547-page report was promptly and strongly denounced by Israel and the United States as biased against Israel.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on lashed out against the Goldstone report, calling it "distorted, false, and irresponsible"
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the report "has no legal, factual or ethical validity whatsoever."

In response Israel "asked a number of senior members of the Obama administration to assist in curbing the international fallout from the Goldstone Commission report released this week, which accuses Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead." - according to Haaretz


"Only those who have already condemned Israel can be trusted to be fair"
Oh please..............