Stand for Israel

"Human rights" group's founder zings it for unfair, inaccurate attacks on Israel

Robert Bernstein, the founder of Human Rights Watch, sadly writes in the New York Times that he has to distance himself from the group: HRW used to recognize the differences between open, democratic societies and closed, authoritarian ones, and knew that you cannot compare "abuses" in the two. Now, he says, HRW has cast aside the distinctions it used to make and is making a moral muddle:

Nowhere is this more evident than in its work in the Middle East. The region is populated by authoritarian regimes with appalling human rights records. Yet in recent years Human Rights Watch has written far more condemnations of Israel for violations of international law than of any other country in the region.

Israel, with a population of 7.4 million, is home to at least 80 human rights organizations, a vibrant free press, a democratically elected government, a judiciary that frequently rules against the government, a politically active academia, multiple political parties and, judging by the amount of news coverage, probably more journalists per capita than any other country in the world — many of whom are there expressly to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Meanwhile, the Arab and Iranian regimes rule over some 350 million people, and most remain brutal, closed and autocratic, permitting little or no internal dissent. The plight of their citizens who would most benefit from the kind of attention a large and well-financed international human rights organization can provide is being ignored as Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division prepares report after report on Israel.

Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective on a conflict in which Israel has been repeatedly attacked by Hamas and Hezbollah, organizations that go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields. These groups are supported by the government of Iran, which has openly declared its intention not just to destroy Israel but to murder Jews everywhere. This incitement to genocide is a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Read it in its entirety here.

UK to UN: Feh on Goldstone report

World Jewish Daily reports:

Britain on Thursday became the first Western country on the U.N. Human Rights Council to categorically reject the Goldstone report and any subsequent draft resolution, the Jerusalem Post reports.

"We can not endorse the report and can not vote for the resolution as tabled," diplomats stated while decrying the council's decision to hold a special session on the matter.

Earlier, the Palestinians submitted a five-page draft resolution aimed at condemning Israel for alleged human rights violations during recent clashes, including last winter's Gaza war.

Despite fierce criticism of the largely biased report from both U.S. and Israeli officials, the council is expected to eventually endorse the new resolution.

Read more in the Jerusalem Post.

UN to discuss Goldstone report

World Jewish Daily picks up an AP report that the UN is in fact slating a session to discuss the Goldstone commission report, which alleges that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza:

Palestinian officials in recent days successfully lobbied 18 of the 47 council member countries to initiate the discussion, which will focus on claims that both Israel and the P.A. are legally accountable for their respective roles in the war.

Israeli officials have slammed the largely one-sided report, saying that South African judge Richard Goldstone's attempt to morally synthesize both sides' actions based on false and misleading evidence.

"We still think that this report is very dangerous and is disconnected from reality. This report was based almost exclusively on Hamas propaganda," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.