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Yet Another Outrageous Congressional Pander to AIPAC

Yet Another Outrageous Congressional Pander to AIPAC

Please call your Congressional representatives now and tell them to vote against H.RES. 867 that directs the President to do whatever is necessary to deep-six Judge Goldstone’s UN report documenting the war crimes committed in Gaza. Congress expects to pass this “bi-partisan” legislation by Halloween. (How appropriate!).

The entire bill is here below, for your education and amazement.

111TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. RES. 867

Calling 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’’ in multilateral
fora.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 23, 2009
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN (for herself, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, and
Mr. ACKERMAN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

RESOLUTION
Calling 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’’ in multilateral fora.
Whereas, on January 12, 2009, the United Nations Human
Rights Council passed Resolution A/HRC/S–9/L.1, which
authorized a ‘‘fact-finding mission’’ regarding Israel’s
conduct of Operation Cast Lead against violent militants
in the Gaza Strip between December 27, 2008, and January
18, 2009;
Whereas the resolution pre-judged the outcome of its investigation,
by one-sidedly mandating the ‘‘fact-finding mission’’
to ‘‘investigate all violations of international human
rights law and International Humanitarian Law by . . .
Israel, against the Palestinian people . . . particularly in
the occupied Gaza Strip, due to the current aggression’’;
Whereas the mandate 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 civilian targets in Israel, that necessitated
Israel’s defensive measures;
Whereas the ‘‘fact-finding mission’’ included a member who,
before joining the mission, had already declared Israel
guilty of committing atrocities in Operation Cast Lead by
signing a public letter on January 11, 2009, published in
the Sunday Times, that called Israel’s actions ‘‘war
crimes’’;
Whereas the mission’s flawed and biased mandate gave serious
concern to many United Nations Human Rights
Council Member States which refused to support it, including
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Republic
of Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine,
and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland;
Whereas the mission’s flawed and biased mandate troubled
many distinguished individuals who refused invitations to
head the mission;
Whereas, on September 15, 2009, the ‘‘United Nations Fact
Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’ released its report;

Whereas the report repeatedly made sweeping and unsubstantiated
determinations that the Israeli military had deliberately
attacked civilians during Operation Cast Lead;
Whereas the authors of the report, in the body of the report
itself, admit that ‘‘we did not deal with the issues . . .
regarding the problems of conducting military operations
in civilian areas and second-guessing decisions made by
soldiers and their commanding officers ‘in the fog of
war.’ ’’;
Whereas in the October 16th edition of the Jewish Daily Forward,
Richard Goldstone, the head of the ‘‘United Nations
Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’, is
quoted as saying, with respect to the mission’s evidencecollection
methods, ‘‘If this was a court of law, there
would have been nothing proven.’’;
Whereas the report, in effect, denied the State of Israel the
right to self-defense, and never noted the fact that Israel
had the right to defend its citizens from the repeated violent
attacks committed against civilian targets in southern
Israel by Hamas and other Foreign Terrorist Organizations
operating from Gaza;
Whereas the report largely ignored the culpability of the Government
of Iran and the Government of Syria, both of
whom sponsor Hamas and other Foreign Terrorist Organizations;
Whereas the report usually considered public statements
made by Israeli officials not to be credible, while frequently
giving uncritical credence to statements taken
from what it called the ‘‘Gaza authorities’’, i.e. the Gaza
leadership of Hamas;

Whereas, notwithstanding a great body of evidence that
Hamas and other violent Islamist groups committed war
crimes by using civilians and civilian institutions, such as
mosques, schools, and hospitals, as shields, the report repeatedly
downplayed or cast doubt upon that claim;
Whereas in one notable instance, the report stated that it did
not consider the admission of a Hamas official that
Hamas often ‘‘created a human shield of women, children,
the elderly and the mujahideen, against [the Israeli
military]’’ specifically to ‘‘constitute evidence that Hamas
forced Palestinian civilians to shield military objectives
against attack.’’;
Whereas Hamas was able to significantly shape the findings
of the investigation mission’s report by selecting and
prescreening some of the witnesses and intimidating others,
as the report acknowledges when it notes that ‘‘those
interviewed in Gaza appeared reluctant to speak about
the presence of or conduct of hostilities by the Palestinian
armed groups . . . from a fear of reprisals’’;
Whereas even though Israel is a vibrant democracy with a
vigorous and free press, the report of the ‘‘fact-finding
mission’’ erroneously asserts that ‘‘actions of the Israeli
government . . . have contributed significantly to a political
climate in which dissent with the government and its
actions . . . is not tolerated’’;
Whereas the report recommended that the United Nations
Human Rights Council endorse its recommendations, implement
them, review their implementation, and refer the
report to the United Nations Security Council, the Prosecutor
of the International Criminal Court, and the
United Nations General Assembly for further action;

Whereas the report recommended that the United Nations
Security Council—
(1) require the Government of Israel to launch further
investigations of its conduct during Operation Cast
Lead and report back to the Security Council within six
months;
(2) simultaneously appoint an ‘‘independent committee
of experts’’ to monitor and report on any domestic
legal or other proceedings undertaken by the Government
of Israel within that six-month period; and
(3) refer the case to the Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court after that six-month period;
Whereas the report recommended that the United Nations
General Assembly consider further action on the report
and establish an escrow fund, to be funded entirely by
the State of Israel, to ‘‘pay adequate compensation to
Palestinians who have suffered loss and damage’’ during
Operation Cast Lead;
Whereas the report ignored the issue of compensation to
Israelis who have been killed or wounded, or suffered
other loss and damage, as a result of years of past and
continuing rocket and mortar attacks by Hamas and
other violent militant groups in Gaza against civilian targets
in southern Israel;
Whereas the report recommended ‘‘that States Parties to the
Geneva Conventions of 1949 start criminal investigations
[of Operation Cast Lead] in national courts, using universal
jurisdiction’’ and that ‘‘following investigation, alleged
perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted’’;
Whereas the concept of ‘‘universal jurisdiction’’ has frequently
been used in attempts to detain, charge, and
prosecute Israeli and United States officials and former
officials in connection with unfounded allegations of war
crimes and has often unfairly impeded the travel of those
individuals;
Whereas the State of Israel, like many other free democracies,
has an independent judicial system with a robust
investigatory capacity and has already launched numerous
investigations, many of which remain ongoing, of Operation
Cast Lead and individual incidents therein;
Whereas Libya and others have indicated that they intend to
further pursue consideration of the report and implementation
of its recommendations by the United Nations Security
Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the
United Nations Human Rights Council, and other multilateral
fora;
Whereas the President instructed the United States Mission
to the United Nations and other international organizations
in Geneva to vote against resolution A–HRC–S–12–
1, which endorsed the report and condemned Israel, at
the special session of the Human Rights Council held on
October 15–16, 2009;
Whereas, on September 30, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton described the mandate for the report as ‘‘onesided’’;
Whereas, on September 17, 2009, Ambassador Susan Rice,
United States Permanent Representative to the United
Nations, expressed the United States’ ‘‘very serious concern
with the mandate’’ and noted that the United States
views the mandate ‘‘as unbalanced, one-sided and basically
unacceptable’’;
Whereas the ‘‘Report of the United Nations Fact Finding
Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’ reflects the longstanding,
historic bias at the United Nations against the democratic,
Jewish State of Israel;
Whereas the ‘‘Report of the United Nations Fact Finding
Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’ is being exploited by
Israel’s enemies to excuse the actions of violent militant
groups and their state sponsors, and to justify isolation
of and punitive measures against the democratic, Jewish
State of Israel;
Whereas, on October 16, 2009, the United Nations Human
Rights Council voted 25–6 (with 11 states abstaining and
5 not voting) to adopt resolution A–HRC–S–12–1, which
endorsed the ‘‘Report of the United Nations Fact Finding
Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’ and condemned Israel,
without mentioning Hamas, other such violent militant
groups, or their state sponsors; and
Whereas efforts to delegitimize the democratic State of Israel
and deny it the right to defend its citizens and its existence
can be used to delegitimize other democracies and
deny them the same right: Now, therefore, be it
1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
2 (1) considers the ‘‘Report of the United Nations
3 Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’ to be
4 irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consid5
eration or legitimacy;
6 (2) supports the Administration’s efforts to
7 combat anti-Israel bias at the United Nations, its
8 characterization of the ‘‘Report of the United Na9
tions Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’ as
1 ‘‘unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable’’,
2 and its opposition to the resolution on the report;
3 (3) calls on the President and the Secretary of
4 State to continue to strongly and unequivocally op5
pose any endorsement of the ‘‘Report of the United
6 Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’
7 in multilateral fora;
8 (4) calls on the President and the Secretary of
9 State to strongly and unequivocally oppose any fur10
ther consideration of the ‘‘Report of the United Na11
tions Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’’
12 and any other measures stemming from this report
13 in multilateral fora; and
14 (5) reaffirms its support for the democratic,
15 Jewish State of Israel, for Israel’s security and right
16 to self-defense, and, specifically, for Israel’s right to
17 defend its citizens from violent militant groups and
18 their state sponsors.

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