What’s really on trial in the Goldstone Report?

By Consul Joel Lion, Spokesperson for the Consulate General of Israel in New York

(JTA) The No. 1 priority of any government is to protect its citizens, whether it be from times of economic instability, crime or foreign threats.

Stimulus packages and rebates are given to constituents to spur the economy. Additional police forces are deployed to counter crime. But what is a country to do when being attacked by a foreign army?

The answer to this question seems simple: defend its citizens by all means possible. But for Israel, doing so means condemnation by the world in the form of the Goldstone report.

For eight years, since 2001 until Operation Cast Lead, 12,000 rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israeli men, women and children were forced to sleep in bomb shelters. Children’s school days were disturbed by “red alert,” an alarm announcing that a rocket had been fired and that they had 15 seconds to find shelter.

The excuse for the rocket fire: occupation.

Taking the unilateral step to bring peace to its citizens, the Land of Israel, under the leadership of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, dismantled every settlement and every military base in Gaza and relocated 10,000 Jewish residents.

The result: 5,426 rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli citizens.

Israel was forced to react and finally curb these attacks. From March 2008 until the end of Operation Cast Lead, I worked in the Israeli city of Sderot, Israel’s hardest-hit community. Even today I can still see the tear-stained faces and hear the cries of fathers, mothers and children as the red alert sounded, and then the subsequent bang from a missile or rocket hitting a school, a home or a street.

To read more, visit What’s really on trial in the Goldstone Report on JTA.com.

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