The Goldstone Report – A Study in Bias

Israel is appalled and disappointed by the report published on 15 September 2009 by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Gaza Fact Finding Mission. The Report unfairly describes Israel’s defense of its citizens as war crimes, while ignoring the deliberate strategy of Hamas to operate from within or behind the civilian population. Read more

UK anti-Semitic attacks rise after Gaza conflict

LONDON (AP) – The number of anti-Semitic attacks on British Jews rose sharply after the start of the conflict in Gaza, a Jewish charity said Friday.
The London-based Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitism and works to safeguard the Jewish community in Britain, said 250 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in the four weeks after Dec. 27, when Israel launched attacks on Gaza to stop Hamas rocket attacks.

That compares to 40 incidents from the same period the year before.

Dave Rich, a spokesman for the trust, said Jews in Britain are unfairly seen as local representatives of Israel—a view that fuels some of the anti-Semitic attacks.

“This is racism,” he said. “And like all forms of racism, it is unacceptable.”

The trust said crimes included assaults, damage to Jewish property, threats, hate mail, verbal abuse and anti-Semitic graffiti.

Police figures echo this rise. London police have recorded about three times the number of anti-Semitic incidents from Dec. 27 to Feb. 3 as compared to the same period last year. Though some of that increase came from a change in the way the statistics were kept, the data still reflected a surge in incidents in the capital.

Around Europe, several attacks were reported against Jews and synagogues in France, Sweden and Belgium in the weeks after the Israeli offensive, Rich said.

The figures were released before an international conference Monday in London on tackling anti-Semitism.

Israel’s three-week offensive left nearly 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza dead, according to Gaza officials. Thirteen Israelis were killed, including three civilians.

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UN Admits: IDF Didn’t Hit School

(IsraelNN.com) During the Cast Lead operation in Gaza, IDF tank fire near a United Nations school in Gaza was blamed for the deaths of dozens of civilians who had taken refuge in the building. The incident became one of the most highly publicized attacks in the war, and led to heavy international criticism.

While admitting that Israeli fire had not hit the school compound, Ging insisted it made little difference. “Forty-one innocent people were killed in the street… The State of Israel still has to answer for that,” he said.

While many Israel news outlets reported that the strike had taken place near the school, several international media networks reported that the UN school building itself was hit. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs may have added to the confusion by releasing a report stating that Israeli fire “directly hit two UNRWA schools.”

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Israeli killing of Palestinians radicalises UK Muslims

Britain’s security and counter-terrorism minister acknowledges link between foreign policy, security threats.

Britain’s security and counter-terrorism minister, Lord Alan West, warned Tuesday that the conflict in Gaza has set back the government’s attempts to tackle radicalism in Muslim communities here.

“There is no doubt that when you see these pictures coming back, that in the mind of people making hate, there is a linkage between the US, Israel and the UK. Without a doubt it will have set us back,” he said.

West also dismissed the refusal by former prime minister Tony Blair to acknowledge the link between foreign policy and security threats.

“We never used to accept that our foreign policy ever had any effect on terrorism. Well, that was clearly bollocks,” he said, according to widespread and concurring reports.

“They [the Blair administration] were very unwilling to have any debate about how our foreign policy impacted on radicalisation.”

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