Israel Acting To Void A Vote On Goldstone Report

Thursday October 15, 2009 13:04 by IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli officials are actively involved in talks with several European officials in an attempt to convince their countries to vote against adopting the report on Judge Richard Goldstone on Gaza war.

Several Israeli officials said that Israel is not worried about having the report discussed at the Security Council as they already obtained guarantees of an American Veto, but they want to remove it from the agenda and from any future discussions.

The officials are holding talks with several officials around the world to ensure Israel’s interests are preserved at all times.

Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, contacted several European officials and urged them to oppose the Goldstone report which will be presented to the Human Rights Council on Friday, the Arabs48 website reported.

Barak held talks with the French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, British Foreign Minister, David Miliband, Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Moratinus, and Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.

He told the officials that the Goldstone report is biased, fake and encourages terrorism, and that all “democratic countries must realize that adopting the report harms their effectiveness in countering terrorist groups and terrorism in general”.

The Goldstone report, which accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes, will be presented to the Security Council on Wednesday, and will be voted on by the UN Human Rights council on Thursday and Friday.

Israel is trying to divert the vote into a discussion on what it describes as the ‘violations of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’.

Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, told the Israeli Army Radio that the United States will use its Veto power to foil any decision against Israel.

Shalev added that U.S Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, had promised that the U.S. would use its Veto power against any decision targeting Israel.

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