In recent days, both Israel and the Palestinians presented documents to the UN General Assembly to show they had made suitable investigations into what happened during the Gaza War.

But how ridiculous can statements be, and still be believed. The terrorist Hamas organisation sent a document concerning the war last year, saying that they were sorry if innocent civilians had been hurt by them at any time because they had only been shooting at military targets! Sorry indeed! Not only had they   shot thousands of rockets indiscriminately into civilian towns, sent suicide bombers to kill people, but even two days ago and I’ve just heard on the news that today also they sent another Kassam rocket into a civilian area. And now they pretend otherwise!!

 

And as asked for in response to the Goldstone report, Israel also presented the United Nations with a document concerning our investigation into the war and we told the truth and how unbalanced the Goldstone report is. Yes, civilians had been hurt in the war, but mostly only because the Hamas terrorists  deliberately put Palestinian civilians in harm’s way in order to shield its fighters and to exploit international pressure on Israel over civilian deaths.  They were hiding in their buildings and shooting from public institutions.

In particular, the report vehemently denied that Israel intentionally struck water wells in Namar, or the wastewater plant in Gaza City: “Standing orders issued through the Gaza operation strictly forbade any acts damaging water installations,” and the military advocate-general found no credible evidence to suggest otherwise. In fact, “The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) made significant efforts to ensure that the population of Gaza had a sufficient and continuous water supply.”  Defense Minister Ehud Barak said last week that the Goldstone report was  distorted, false and biased. The Israeli response, he added, “again illustrates that the IDF is a uniquely responsible and serious military, that operates in a moral and accurate manner even under impossible conditions.”

 

Now we have to wait what UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s judgement will be, because in the Security Council the Arabs always have a majority vote.

 

And now for a few words about our neighbouring country Jordan (once called Trans-Jordan). A US-based human rights group criticized that country for taking away the citizenship of over 3,000 Jordanians of Palestinian origin in recent years. Evidently Jordan “fears” that if Palestinians become the majority, it will disrupt the delicate demographic balance. Have the Jordanians forgotten that Jordan is  an actual part of Palestine, given to King Abdullah so generously by the British Mandate which ruled here so many years ago and had no right to give away land? This Jordanian measure rendered the Palestinians “stateless,” depriving them of passports, voting rights, education, travel, health care and jobs - so this is now also something to blame Israel for. Where are all those other “do-gooders” for human rights now?

 

One of Israel’s greatest worries nowadays is Iran, which is not only proceeding with its plan for gaining nuclear power, but speeding it up. Sanctions so far don’t seem to have changed anything in their actions. When will the world wake up and see the real danger to all?

With that I close today. Shalom from Irene

 

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