TJP

Obstruction of Goldstone Report Validates Extremists Views of the West

By Byron A. Ellis – October 16, 2009

According to an article published in the Jerusalem Post, the United Kingdom is the first Western nation with voting rights on the UN Human Rights Council to signal that it would not endorse the Goldstone Report. Such obstruction of the report is interesting, particularly to black and brown countries whose leaders are quickly hauled off to the World Court by Western nations at the first accusation of human rights violations.

It is this type of double standard that incites extremists and validates their ability to continually recruit walking bombs. The United Kingdom and the West must embrace procedural fairness; otherwise the ongoing confrontation between the West and the disenfranchised will continue to spread.

It is clear that war crimes were committed by Israel on the Gazan population. It is also clear that Israel continues to occupy, terrorize and blockade Gaza. If Iran behaved like Israel, Western nations would be hauling their leaders to the World Court.

When procedural justice is absent from relationships, a confrontational climate is created. In the past, Western nations could impose such a climate with little or no consequence. However, even with mighty Western armies those days are gone and are unlikely to reemerge.

Therefore, it is important for the West to imitate China. The Chinese are shrewdly building relationships with Africa, Latin America, and the Muslims world. While the West is waging war, the Chinese are opening markets to buy raw materials and to sell finished goods.

As the Chinese increase their wealth, their ability to build a strong military will also increase. Conversely, as the West focuses on war and to treat other nations without regard to procedural justice, their relationship and wealth will continue to diminish.

The West must not abandon Israel; rather it must show Israel strong love and let them know unequivocally that they must not treat Palestinians as second-class citizens. It ought to be unthinkable for Americans to continue to pour billions of dollars to support an apartheid regime. Americans of good conscience should not sponsor apartheid in any region of the globe.

If the West fails to apply procedural fairness to conflicts in which it engages in, including the Israel-Palestinian conflict, it will continue to allocate valuable resources to a broader war in foreign lands and to be always on the lookout for infiltrators at home.

Finally, those that commit war crimes whether friends or foe should be treated equally; it is foolish, therefore, for the United Kingdom to shield Israel from war crimes by obstructing the Goldstone Report.

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