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AIPAC urges passage of the Goldstone resolution

By Ron Kampeas · November 3, 2009

AIPAC is urging members of the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the non-binding resolution condemning the Goldstone report on last winter's Gaza war and urging the Obama administration to keep it from advancing within the United Nations system.

The resolution is due for consideration Tuesday.

Here's AIPAC's letter, signed by Howard Kohr, AIPAC's executive director, and Brad Gordon, its policy director.

Dear Representative:

We write in strong support of H.Res. 867, introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA), which opposes the so-called "Goldstone Report" on Gaza and reaffirms Israel's right to self-defense.  

This bipartisan resolution, which may come to the floor on Tuesday, expresses support for the administration's rejection of the Goldstone report on Israel's defensive war last winter against the terrorist organization Hamas. The notoriously anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council commissioned and subsequently adopted this report which, according to the administration, had a mandate that was "unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable."  This report falsely charges that Israel committed war crimes and purposely targeted civilians.

The Ros-Lehtinen/Berman resolution, which is also co-sponsored by Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) and Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and more than 130 other House Members, denounces the report as "irredeemably biased," applauds the administration's previous rejection of the report, urges the administration to "unequivocally oppose" further consideration of the report at U.N. bodies, and expresses support for Israel's right to self-defense.

There are many reasons why the U.S. should not lend legitimacy to the Goldstone report:

·        The report is part of an ongoing effort at the U.N. to single out Israel and to deny Israel the same rights accorded to other nations.  For example, of the 34 motions adopted by the U.N. Human Rights Council since its inception in 2006, 27 of them are directed at Israel.

·        The report equates Israel's long-delayed acts of self-defense with Hamas' 12,000 intentional and indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilians since 2001.

·        The report ignores the well-documented, unprecedented efforts by Israel to limit civilian casualties in Gaza neighborhoods where they were being used as human shields by the terrorists

·        The report, as described by Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner, fails to "assign appropriate responsibility to Hamas for its decision to base itself and its military operations in heavily civilian populated areas."

·        The report fails to acknowledge that Israel, a law-abiding democratic state, is already conducting numerous investigations into legitimate questions about the conduct of its forces.

As the UN General Assembly debates and considers action on the Goldstone report later this week, it is critical for Congress to back Israel's right to self-defense by approving this resolution with a strong bipartisan vote. We strongly urge you to support the Ros-Lehtinen/Berman Resolution to demonstrate that the House and the administration stand together in reasserting this right and opposing anti-Israel bias at the U.N.

Sincerely,