Opinion

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The Goldstone Farce

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42

October 29 b 2009

All entries are due by
Oct 30th, 2009

1543200

he No. 1 priority of any gov-
ernment is to protect its citi-
zens, whether from times of
economic instability, crime or foreign
threats.
Stimulus packages and rebates
are given to constituents to spur the
economy. Additional police forces are
deployed to counter crime. But what
is a country to do when attacked by a
foreign army?
The answer to this ques-
tion seems simple: defend
its citizens by all means
possible. But for Israel,
doing so means condem-
nation by the world in
the form of the Goldstone
Report.
For eight years, since
2001 until Operation Cast
Lead, 12,000 rockets were
fired at Israel from the
Gaza Strip. Israeli men,
women and children were
forced to sleep in bomb
shelters. Children's school
days were disturbed by "red alerts:'
an alarm announcing that a rocket
had been fired and that they had 15
seconds to find shelter.
The excuse for the rocket fire:
occupation.
Taking the unilateral step to bring
peace to its citizens, the Land of
Israel, under the leadership of Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon, dismantled
every settlement and every military
base in Gaza and relocated 10,000
Jewish residents.
The result: 5,426 rocket and mortar
attacks on Israeli citizens.

Terror In Sderot
Israel was forced to react and finally
curb these attacks. From March 2008
until the end of Operation Cast Lead,
I worked in the Israeli city of Sderot,
Israel's hardest-hit community. Even
today, I can still see the tear-stained
faces and hear the cries of fathers,
mothers and children as the red alert
sounded and then the subsequent
bang from a missile or rocket hitting a
school, a home or a street.
Every day, for eight years, rockets
and mortars hit Sderot. Not a day
went by that the siren did not sound.
Not a night went by that children

could sleep in their beds. In the rare
instances that residents were allowed
to leave the shelters for fresh air,
and to get food and clothes for their
extended stay, fear was rampant in
the air.
No one knew when the next rocket
would be fired.
Israel tried diplomatic ways, enter-
ing into a truce with Hamas to bring
peace to the residents of southern
Israel.
But Hamas chose war as we had
our arms outstretched for
peace. On Dec. 13, 2008,
Israel announced that it
wished to extend a truce
that was scheduled to end
Dec. 19. On Dec. 20, Hamas
chose not to extend the
truce.
Choosing the path of
war, on Dec. 24, Christmas
Eve, Hamas fired 87 rock-
ets and mortar rounds at
Israel in an operation titled
Operation Oil Stain.
The question of a
government's right to self-
defense is not the only issue on trial
in the Goldstone Report. Also on trial
is the world's right to fight terrorism,
whether at home or abroad.
Israel, a nation with laws and
codes of ethics, was forced to defend
itself from terrorists who intention-
ally fired at innocent civilians and
decided to hide among their own
civilian population in order to defend
themselves from counter action.
Goldstone does not differentiate
between a democracy using force
to defend its civilians and a terror
organization targeting innocent civil-
ians on purpose. The report does not
search for the truth, but rather instills
Goldstone's own political beliefs on
the situation.
Such reports not only harm nation
states in the war against terror, but
also harm the prospects for peace
in the Middle East. For peace to be
given a chance, all citizens must
know that their country will keep
them safe — not only from econom-
ic crisis and crime, but also from
foreign threats.

Joel Lion is consul for media affairs and

spokesman of the Consulate General of

Israel in New York.

