While the UN General Assembly voted to renew its demand that Israel and Hamas investigate themselves as demanded by the Goldstone report, a New York Times report observed:
… other ambassadors suggested that repeated resolutions with little effect was more likely to be a sign of the report’s slow, bureaucratic death.
(Israel has been investigating the IDF’s conduct during Cast Lead, the General Assembly just hasn’t acknowledged that.)
Normally I wouldn’t give a whole lot of credence to a throwaway line in a news report, but I read this interview with Nick Kaufman, who argues that the path forward to condemning Israel, is not as straightforward as Israel’s enemies believe.
“I don’t understand how the United Nations Security Council has made a decision to transfer the case to the international criminal court at The Hague, because I think in any event, the United States will veto the decision.”
“The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said he was satisfied with the investigation Israel has conducted, but the Arab League and other unidentified countries have insisted that a new investigation be conducted in the next 5 months. I don’t see it going beyond this.”
“On the other hand, I don’t believe the senior prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will yield to the Palestinians request and order an investigation against Israel: For him to accept the Palestinian request to recognize their court authority to try and judge the violations committed on their land, he would first have to recognize the Palestinian Authority as an independent country, and I cant see him making such an extreme decision. I just don’t see it happening.”
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
