Free Republic

When the news of the New Israel Fund (NIF) paying around $8 million to organizations that provided the Goldstone Report with all its condemnations of Israel, it was clear that the “New Israel” desired by the New Israel Fund is one with more than 9 years of consistent rocket fire. Our organization, Sderot Media Center (SMC), with a yearly budget of close to $200,000, worked tirelessly on a formal report that was requested by the Goldstone Commission itself, which encompassed the impact of the rocket fire on the residents of the Sderot region. We sent this formal report accompanied by...

Former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis was appointed on Monday to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) commission investigating Israel’s Operation Protective Edge and that actions of the Hamas terrorist group. The move comes after Lebanese-born British lawyer Amal Alamuddin—Hollywood star George Clooney’s fiancée—turned down her nomination citing existing professional commitments. The selection of McGowan Davis is par for the course for UNHRC’s probe, given that the judge was part of the 2009 Goldstone committee which accused Israel of “war crimes” in Operation Cast Lead. Israel rejected the findings of the report which many assessed as blatantly biased, and...

Under pressure from Arab nations, the United Nations Human Rights Council has rejected a U.S.-backed choice to replace its outgoing point man on Palestine, and is now eyeing two candidates who share a long history of alleged anti-Israel bias. The current front-runner to replace Richard Falk, a 9/11 truther who once praised Ayatollah Khomeinei and was reliably anti-Israel while serving as the council's special rapporteur on Palestinian rights, is Christine Chinkin, a law professor at the London School of Economics. Chinkin authored the Goldstone report, an infamous UN study on the Gaza conflict that was repudiated by Israel. A dark...

Israel has been accepted to join the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Maariv reported Thursday. The international body infamous for condemning the Jewish state will now add it to the list of 9 Western states. The move is a complete about-face for the UNHRC, which in its 5-year history has condemned Israel over 46 times—more than any other nation in the world. The UNHRC was also the body that appointed the Goldstone Commission’s investigation of “Operation Cast Lead” in the December 2008–January 2009 Gaza War, eventually concluding that Israel had committed war crimes. While Judge Richard Goldstone rescinded parts...

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who preached in Tahrir Square 10 days ago, loathes Israel, justifies suicide bombings against its civilians. 1. Sheikh Dr. Yusuf Abdallah al-Qaradawi is a central figure affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. He was expelled from Egypt and found refuge in Qatar, operating from there throughout the Muslim world. 2. Many consider him the supreme religious and ideological authority for the Muslim Brotherhood, although he is not officially its leader. (In the past, he refused to accept the title of the Muslim Brotherhood’s General Guide). He is influential in Egypt and considered one of the most important Sunni...

Feasting on Israel By Ari Bussel When will we be able to dance on the ruins of the Jewish State? It has been too long in the planning, time to reap the benefits of our hard work! With Tunisia, Egypt and Libya now part of the Iranian Axis, shall anyone wager a bet, who will be next to fall into extremist Islamic hands: Israel or Syria? Or perhaps a tie, with both falling simultaneously? “Democracy,” chanted the multitudes in a frenzied cry. “Freedom” whispered so many with hope glistening in their eyes. “Change” pronounced the American President as he pushed...

While Israel is used to being vilified in the United Nations, there is far more to be unraveled in the Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict than just Richard Goldstone’s retraction on April 1, 2011. The secrets behind the story are revealed in my new book, Boycotting Peace (http://www.BoycottingPeace.com) and here is a behind-the-scenes peek at what the Palestinians and United Nations do not want you to know. There is a Harvard educated U.S. law professor who has been a consultant to Yassir Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the official name of the Palestinian Authority, and who created...

Editors' note: this column is co-authored by Robert Morrison. Richard Goldstone is a retired justice of South Africa ’s Constitutional Court . He is Jewish and a Zionist. So, when this distinguished jurist issued a report commissioned by the UN’s Human Rights Council, it was known that the Goldstone Report would gain worldwide attention. It did. That’s because this September 2009 report condemned both Israel and Hamas for “possible crimes against humanity.” This is the first time a credible figure like Goldstone lent his name to such an explosive allegation. To place Israel on a par with known terrorist groups...

The judge can't wash his hands of the UN's rotten Gaza report. Judge Richard Goldstone, like some latter day Shylock, is now willing to return his pound of flesh, by recanting his farcical 2009 UN report on IsraelÂ’s invasion of Gaza. But the blood libel spilled in its creation cannot be expunged. Blood libels are like that. They take on a life and persistence of their own. The infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion continues to flourish long after it was shown to be a forgery created by the Czarist secret police. The shooting of Mohammed al-Dura, a visual...

Goldstone and Judas: Brothers in Arms By Norma Zager “To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature Congressman.” Mark Twain As a newspaper editor I am well aware the old saw about lies making headlines and retractions being hidden on the obituary page is most often true. I am also aware the pen is mightier than the sword. Goldstone’s Report is further evidence of this reality. What surprises me is shock people are expressing over the lack of outrage over Goldstone’s retraction of the lies in his report on Israel. The world today is filled with...

The Power of the Written Word by Ari Bussel “U.N. reports are not canceled on the basis of an op-ed in a newspaper.” U.N. Human Rights Council spokesman Cedric Sapey Many claim print media is a disappearing industry, yet it still wields enormous power. Many still claim Jews rule the media. Let us take a look at three Op-Ed pieces published in recent months. I have chosen one from the Los Angeles Times, another from the Jerusalem Post and a third from the Washington Post. Incidentally, all three pieces are by distinguished Jewish writers. Ironically, all paint Israel in a...

Hiss Off By Norma Zager “The world of men is dreaming, it has gone mad in its sleep, and a snake is strangling it, but it can’t wake up.” D.H. Lawrence This must be a time for a new snake infestation. The slithery creatures seem to dominate the news lately. Aside from the usual cadre of snakes slithering about in Congress we are forced to deal with on a daily basis, we have the Libyan variety, and of course the infamous Bronx Zoo cobra gaining great notoriety and a Twitter account for its ability to avoid his captors. He may...

Source close to South African judge claims he initially approached liberal publication to print his letter of regret – and was rejected. New York Times says in response it does not comment on editorial process Not only did Judge Richard Goldstone's words of regret fail to match the global resonance of his original report, it now comes to light that one of the most important newspapers in the world refused to publish his retraction. Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday that a source close to Goldstone stated that in the past few days the judge had approached the editor of the New...

We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document. The final report by the U.N. committee of independent experts — chaired by former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis — that followed up on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report has found that “Israel has dedicated significant resources...

Not everyone who hates Israel, hates Jews, even our US State Department recognizes that oftentimes the two are connected The collective effect of unremitting criticism of Israel, coupled with a failure to pay attention to regimes that are demonstrably guilty of grave violations, has the effect of reinforcing the notion that the Jewish state is one of the sources, if not the greatest source, of abuse of the rights of others, and thus intentionally or not encourages anti-Semitism

Gaza – Goldstone Aftermath by Ari Bussel Recently, Israel seems to be engaging in negative sum games: A “humanitarian” flotilla (the Turkish Terrorist Flotilla of Lies) is arranged to end the blockade and siege on Gaza put in place four years ago. Lo and behold, there is now a free flow of goods into Gaza. The mission was accomplished with flying colors. Bonuses must be awarded to those who brought about the desired end! Israel’s ruling elite claims it intended to ease the restrictions all along. Apparently the catalyst worked, but why was it necessary to pay such a dear...

Israel Research Center: UN Goldstone Report Ignored Facts By Joel Leyden, Larry Butchins Israel News Agency Jerusalem ---- March 15, 2010 …. . A year after the Israel Defense Forces Operation Cast Lead confronted the terror group Hamas in Gaza a well respected, Israel intelligence research center finally gets to tell its side of the story. According to a news report in today’s Jerusalem Post by Military Correspondent Ya’akov Katz, a 500-page report authored by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (Malam) is the first, objective Israel response to the UN Goldstone Report, analyzing it piece-by-piece and explaining the true...

Strange Bunch These Jewish People By Norma Zager and Ari Bussel “Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience…” The Bible The other evening we were privileged to hear an IDF colonel speak about Israel’s battle against terrorism. Much has been written and spoken lately about an egregious anti-Semitic document called the Goldstone Report alleging Israel of misdeeds. We were anxious to learn the truth from someone who is in the fray daily and literally on the front lines of battle. Viewing real footage from...

Not all Anti-Semites are Anti-Israel, not all people who are Anti-Israel are Anti-Semites. But for many, hatred of Israel is just a politically correct way displaying hatred of Jews. For those spewers of hate there is no difference between the two. They use updated versions of the old European Shylock-type stereotypes to portray Israelis, create new tales about the IDF that mirror the blood libel slanders in the Protocols of the learned Elders of Zion to cast aspersions on Israel. They even use a modern libel,the "Jewish Lobby" controls US foreign policy. The Jewish Lobby I know of is in...

Even before the Goldstone Report was released, Richard Goldstone was arguing for its credibility by invoking his Jewishness, his Zionism, his daughter’s residence in Israel and his connection to Hebrew University. It was the mirror image of the classic fallacy known as the argument ad hominem, which is defined as follows: A substantive argument should not be rejected solely because of who has offered it. It follows of course from this fallacy that an argument should also not be accepted because of who offered it. A close relative of the ad hominem fallacy is what I have called “the argument...