Amira Hass on civilian victims of Israeli fire in the Gaza war (2008-9)

In her piece she refers to "Breaking the Silence", the Israeli group that publishes testimony drawing on personal experiences of former Israeli soldiers.

This UK Channel 4 segment offers interviews with three former Israeli soldiers who fought in the Gaza War, all members of Breaking the Silence".

The Goldstone Commission: Accounts by Israeli soldiers lend further corroboration

If you follow events on the Israel-Palestine front, you already know that the Goldstone Report has been very much vindicated by Israeli investigations and prosecutions

I do want to post Yaniv Reich's important comment on the Goldstone Report.  Reich summarizes the war crimes and other violations that were first reported in the Report that have been subsequently admitted by Israeli authorities (July 2010 report by Israeli military).  As Reich notes, many of the mendacious critics of Judge Richard Goldstone should be on their knees apologizing.  First in line should be Harvard's Alan Dershowitz who described Goldstone as a latter day Dr. Mengele.
According to informed sources, several of the investigations are still being stonewalled within the IDF, so there are still some shoes to drop.

[I have had little time to post these past months because I have been working on some new projects, including an initiative on Iraq, which I will describe here in due course.]

US Response to Gaza: April 21, 4:30 pm at MIT

Goldstone Commission member draws fire

[Cross-posted with Informed Comment: Global Agenda]

Desmond Travers, one of the four members of the Goldstone Commission, has drawn fire for noting that an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire, initiated in June 2008, was being respected by Hamas, at least until Israel punctured the ceasefire early November 2008.* In an interview in Middle East Memo, a London-based website that focuses on the Middle East and seeks to promote “fair and accurate coverage” of the Middle East, Travers claims that only two rockets were fired into Israel the month before Israel’s Gaza operation began. Travers is correct, but he should have been more precise. While the ceasefire technically expired in December 2008, in early November Israel broke the ceasefire by launching a raid into Gaza.

Here is what Travers said to interviewer Dr. Hanan Chehata:

HC - Israel claims that its attack on Gaza was based on self-defence. In your opinion is their claim of self-defence enough of a reason to justify their attack on Gaza last year?

DT – No, I reject that entirely. No, my first sentence is that Israel, like every other country, has a right to defend itself. However, it should be borne in mind that the number of rockets that had been fired into Israel in the month preceding their operations was something like two. The Hamas rockets had ceased being fired into Israel and not only that but Hamas sought a continuation of the ceasefire. Two had been fired from Gaza, but they are likely to have been fired by dissident groups.

HC – For how long had there been a ceasefire?

DT - From June [2008]. And Hamas sought an extension of the ceasefire with Israel and Israel said no. To be honest, Israel might have had a very good reason to refuse an extension of the ceasefire because we all know, in the counter-insurgency world, that ceasefires are opportunities for insurgents to re-arm and re-equip but unfortunately they have never offered that as an explanation, but it is possible, if I’m trying to be fair to them [the Israelis].

Travers is correct. The ceasefire was working. According to Israeli data, including “The Six Months of the Lull Arrangement,” a study prepared by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (released in December 2008), from June 2008 until November 4, 2008 a ceasefire (“lull” in the Israeli report) produced a significant reduction in missile and rocket from Gaza into Israel. Israel significantly reduced its attacked into Gaza during that period as well. Israeli compiled figures, indicate that 20 rockets and 18 mortar shells were fired from Gaza. 17 of the rockets and 15 of the mortar rounds reached Israel. Of those that reached Israel, the numbers per month, from June to October were 9, 6, 11, 3 and 2, respectively. To quote the report (at p. 7):

[During the period of the ceasefire] “Hamas was careful to maintain the ceasefire and its operatives were not involved in rocket attacks. At the same time, the movement tried to enforce the terms of the arrangement on the other terrorist organizations and to prevent them from violating it. Hamas took a number of steps against networks which violated the arrangement, but in a limited fashion and contenting itself with short-term detentions and confiscating weapons.

On November 4, Israel launched a raid into Gaza, which it justified as being necessary to pre-empt a Hamas operation. At least six Hamas members were killed. Hamas denies that it was preparing an operation, and it retaliated by firing rockets into Israel. Thus did the ceasefire end.

Even after the November incident, Hamas was wiling to extend the ceasefire, but with several provisos, notably an end Israel’s crippling blockade of the strip. Israel rejected the Hamas conditions and the ceasefire expired in Decemver. Arguably, when Hamas refused to extend the ceasefire, it was a gift to Israel “on a gold platter,” to borrow the metaphor of the Egyptian Foreign Minister (see my “The Gaza War: Antecedents and Consequences” for more details).

On December 27, 2008, Israel launched the Gaza war with the tragic and troubling results that are elaborated in the Goldstone Report.

*For instance, see the comments of Alan Dershowitz who accuses Travers of having an "anti-Israel agenda" and defying the historical record. Dershowitz has recently drawn fire himself for allegedly calling Judge Richard Goldstone a "moser", a Jew who informs on other Jews. Dershowitz later stated that he did not know what the Yiddish term meant, a claim that strains credulity.

Goldstone and Gold at Brandeis, November 5, 2009

The Brandeis event was held the day after the General Assembly's endorsement of the Goldstone report. By a vote of 114 ayes, 18 nos, 44 abstentions and with 16 member states not voting, the GA confirmed the report. Notable abstentions were France, the UK and Japan. China voted with "aye". All Scandinavian countries abstained. [Thanks to Muzz] Ireland, Switzerland, Portugal, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Cyprus, Albania, and Malta were the European countries voting "yes".

A video of the Brandeis presentations is here. As you will note, the introducers, not least Ilan Troen were at pains to underline their rejection of the Goldstone report.
An indicative sample:  Goldstone, asked to discuss incidents that corroborate the charges made by the commission, points, among other cases, to an attack on a mosque that killed 21 worshippers.  He notes there were no secondary explosions.  He continues that even if the mosque was being used for military purposes, then the Israeli military should have struck it during a time when the mosque was not being used for worship.  Dore Gold, in response, states emphatically that "Israel did not strike that mosque".  In rejoinder, Justice Goldstone says that remnants of the IDF munitions were found in the mosque and that tungsten fragments from Israeli munitions were removed from the wall of the mosque in his presence.