I
World
Goldstone Rapped
House vote discredits
post-Gaza war report.
Washington
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22
.
15416r,
he U.S. House of
Representatives voted over-
whelmingly to condemn the
Goldstone report.
Seven members of the Michigan
Congressional Delegation were among
the signatories, including Gary Peters,
D-Bloomfield Hills, who was an early
critic of the Goldstone Report, blasting
its findings in a speech given from the
Floor of the U.S. House in September,
well before the matter became a promi-
nent national issue.
Peters also spoke out in support
of the Israeli Defense Forces last
January while Operation Cast Lead
was occurring and reiterated the need
for America to support
the State of Israel and
the Jewish state's right
to defend itself. He then
co-sponsored H. Res.
867, which also calls on
President Obama and
the Secretary of State to
oppose unequivocally
any endorsement or fur-
ther consideration of the
Goldstone Report.
The report accuses
Israel of deliberately
targeting Palestinian civilians during
the nation's Operation Cast Lead earlier
this year. That operation was launched
to stop relentless rocket and mortar
attacks by Hamas and other foreign
terrorist organizations in Gaza against
civilians in southern Israel.
The Nov. 3 vote, urging the Obama
administration to keep the report
accusing Israel and Hamas of war
crimes in last winter's Gaza war from
advancing through the U.N. system,
passed 344 to 36 with 22 voting "pres-
ent." Joining Peters in voting yea were:
Peters, Bart Stupak, D - Bay City; Mark
Schauer, D-Battle Creek; Mike Rogers,
R-Brighton; Candace Miller, R-Harrison
Township; Thaddeus McCotter, R-
Livonia; Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak;
and Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland.
The American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, which lobbied hard for the
nonbinding resolution, said it "strongly
applauds" its passing.
The resolution was introduced by
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.,
the senior Republican on the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep.
Howard Berman, D - Calif., its chairman
The resolution asserts that "the man-
date of the 'fact-finding mission makes
no mention of the relentless rocket and
mortar attacks, which numbered in the
thousands and spanned a period of
eight years, by Hamas and other violent
militant groups in Gaza against civil-
ian targets in Israel, that necessitated
Israel's defensive measures."
"Congress is sending a strong mes-
sage that the United States will not
agree to turn the victim into the perpe-
trator; AIPAC said.
"The assertion that Israel deliber-
ately targeted civilians is outrageous:"
said Rep. Peters. "This report is clearly
biased and overly
focused on the actions
of the Israeli Defense
Forces without any con-
sideration of the ongo-
ing attacks of Hamas,
which launches mortars
on a regular basis and
which provoked an
Israeli response last
winter.
"The report ignores
the larger context of
Israel's just actions and
typifies the practice of singling out
Israel from all other nations for con-
demnation and that must stop.
"When I was in Israel last August, I
met with families in Sderot who suf-
fer from daily rocket attacks from the
terrorists living within Gaza, who use
innocent Palestinian children to hide
behind as shields. Israel has a right to
defend herself and her citizens."
The resolution "calls on the
President and the Secretary of State
to continue to strongly and unequivo-
cally oppose any endorsement of the
`Report of the United Nations Fact
Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict'
in multilateral fora, including through
leading opposition to any United
Nations General Assembly resolution
and through vetoing, if necessary,
any United Nations Security Council
resolution that endorses the contents
of this report." Li
"The assertion
that Israel
deliberately
targeted
civilians is
outrageous"
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