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(Haaretz) – Israel asked a number of senior members of the Obama administration to assist in curbing the international fallout from the Goldstone Commission report, which accuses Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.
The Foreign Ministry decided to focus their efforts to combat the report’s accusations on the United States, Russia and a few other members of the United Nations Security Council and the Human Rights Council that are involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Israeli message is that the Goldstone report threatens those countries because it makes the war on terror very difficult, and therefore efforts must be made to prevent it from being brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the issue with U.S. special Middle East envoy George Mitchell, while Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon discussed it with U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and other senior officials.
The international commission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and headed by Judge Richard Goldstone accuses Israel of war crimes, and is passing on its recommendations to the ICC in The Hague.
The Foreign Ministry has established a forum of legal experts to follow any lawsuits that could be filed as a result of the report and to prepare for a scenario in which a suit would be brought forward in The Hague.
Ayalon, who is on a working visit to the United States, began to transmit messages to senior members of the U.S. administration and Congress on the need to object to the report. He noted that the same approach that was taken to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism needs to be taken regarding the Goldstone report.
President Shimon Peres released a statement saying that the Goldstone report “made a mockery of history.”
The Prime Minister’s Office decided that Peres would take the front lines in Israel’s campaign against the report. Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman would not express themselves publicly on the matter, but would engage in quiet diplomacy.
A United Kingdom court deferred until further notice an appeal by local pro-Palestinian groups to issue an arrest warrant against visiting Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
It is not yet clear whether the issue will be raised for deliberation while Israel’s top defense official is still in Britain.
According to sources close to Barak, the British Foreign Ministry recommended to the London court that it treat the current appeal in the same manner it did when a similar appeal was issued in 2004 against Israel’s then defense minister, Shaul Mofaz.
At the time, Mofaz was granted immunity from international arrest and trial – a precedent set by the British court, which until then had given such protection only to foreign ministers or premiers.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
