Thump Down to USA Congress: Goldstone Report Again

Hasan A. Yahya, Ph.Ds

As American citizen, I am appalled to know that, the House of Representatives passed 867 resolution, by a vote of 344-36. The resolution calls on the President and the Secretary of State “to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of the ‘Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’.

The story again and again, USA stands against common sense politics, unless President Barack Obama translated his speeches in Turkey and Egypt  into fruitful action and vetoed the resolution. We strongly oppose such action from the congress, and call for a more rational decision to be neutral in this case.   

Congresspersons while denying  Palestinian and Arab rights forgetting that Israel is an occupied racist force in the Middle East, no person with sound mind negate that fact. Any one may look at the map of Palestine, (West Bank and Gaza) and see how occupation is mismanaging people and land by aggressive hostile practices to land and people. Which far from wars, is violation of basic human rights, which America and the advanced world stand for. Then judge who is capable to do war crimes, the occupied or the occupier?

 These facts make me wander, on what bases the resolution 867 passed in the USA Congress? What rational behind such resolution? And where America is going, politically speaking, and finally, for how long USA will oppose moral standards of the American soul by supporting one side against the other in the Middle East?  

 Jeff Harper, the Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD). wrote in his article titled: No Partner for Peace: Our American Problem: "Neither America nor its erstwhile ally Israel can avoid accountability for their policies and actions. Realpolitik cannot replace a policy based on human rights. If the US wishes to rejoin the international community and genuinely pursue its interests, there is no better place to start than carving out a foreign policy based on justice. Until then, America remains part of the problem, not the solution."(Nov. 4, 2009)

 In his article, Mr. Harper gives several actions taken by USA, while the Israel-Palestine conflict, is not the world’s bloodiest, constitutes, for many people of the world, a unique gauge of American interests and intentions.”  The writer brought these actions to convince readers of mismanagement of the conflict in the Middle East, and the taking sides by USA government.  For example,  while Palestinian land and demolishing Palestinian homes continue, Israel has not lifted the severe restrictions on Palestinian life that has impoverished the majority of the population, in late august, two members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, backed by AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, signed by seventy-one senators, calling on Arab states to normalize relations with Israel even though Israel has not frozen settlement building.

Furthermore,  on September 17th, the Human Rights Council of the UN accepted the Goldstone Report, the UN’s fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict, while the mission’s charges over Israeli war crimes, South African jurist Richard Goldstone actually bent over backwards to protect Israel as much as possible. By ignoring the fact that Israel is occupying the land in the last 42-years of Gaza or its three year siege which has left a million and a half Gazans without adequate food, medical care or the basic necessities of life.

Mr. J. Halper questioned US representative in the UN, Susan Rice, who  immediately condemned the report  but promised Israel that the US would stand behind its fight against the Report. And explained how Judge Goldstone asked the American government “to indicate where the report is flawed or unbalanced,” but never received a response.

I totally agree with the writer, for a simple reason. The reasons stood behind the late attacks on New York by al-Qaida in 2001, still exist and USA is not learning from that lesson. Taking sides make justice blind, which induces dignity loss of the defeated Arab and Muslim world,  by the biased American politics and injustices toward the problem in the Middle East.  The persistent deviation from human moral standards in USA politics, through the USA Congress is leading to more hate and more disgust of America,  people and government abroad. I called several times America to enhance its positive foreign policies and to change it into positive perceptions where justice is the standard not political gains and lobbying. While people of America deserve much better vision in world politics, the Congress which is representing freedom of choice is getting manipulated by power struggle. between American and Jewish interests in America, the land of freedom. I think it is time for politicians to be aware that they are the congress of America, not the Congress of Israel in America.

I wander, how can be imagined that the Report “denied Israel the right to self-defense.” Judge Goldstone in his words said: “Israel right to use military forces was not questioned.” The Goldstone Report concluded  that “ grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention were committed by Israeli forces in Gaza: willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. ” This has nothing to do with right of self defense.

While the United States provides $3 plus billion for weapons and military equipment every year to Israel. I believe that USA is leaning heavily behind Israel existence as an occupied force in the Middle East and forgetting the American interest in the  Arabs countries oil resources. The persistent weakness of Arab nations these days does not give enough reason to take sides with Israel by rejecting the Goldstone report. And further, to instruct the Obama administration to even prevent further consideration of the Report, which is an independent UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. (984 words) www.hasanyahya.com