The misnamed UN Human Rights Council today takes up the infamous Goldstone report, which accuses Israel of war crimes during last winter’s Gaza conflict. The Security Council will also debate it.
The course for the White House is clear: Move fast to squash this anti-Israel ploy, before US soldiers become the UN’s next “war crimes” target.
The notoriously one-sided report had been tabled, following pressure from the Obama administration. But Hamas fomented new violence in Jerusalem and threatened to tear up a reconciliation deal with the Palestinian Authority.
That prompted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to push for immediate debate. (With Hamas so enthusiastically trumpeting the report, is there any question as to its lack of even-handedness?)
That the report is a blatantly biased assault on Israel’s right of self-defense against Hamas rocket fire is clear: It accepted nearly every wild Hamas charge against Israel while rejecting irrefutable Israeli evidence that Hamas deliberately endangered civilian lives.
And if this kind of UN effort gets traction, US soldiers could soon be next in the world body’s legal crosshairs.
Meanwhile, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns, Israel itself won’t “take risks for peace if it can’t defend itself.” And who could blame it?
The sooner Team Obama squashes this dangerous UN move, the better the chances for peace all around.