A test of courage and will - Curtis Doebbler

Ma'an
The United Nations General Assembly, meeting in a plenary session, on Wednesday will discuss the fate of South African jurist Richard Goldstone's fact-finding mission on Gaza.

The verdict of the most representative organ of the 192 states of world body will be a test of the courage and the will of the international community.

...New York is no more a neutral location than is downtown Tel Aviv. In recent Israeli elections, more Israelis situated in New York voted than Israelis located in some major cities in Israel.

...Of course the Israeli diplomats were engaged in the same "trick-or-treating" — offering gifts, and when those did not work, threats — to anyone who would would open his or her door.

...In a message conveyed by American Security Coordinator General Keith W Dayton, among others, the US quickly let the Palestinians know that their support and much of their Western money may be cut if they don't stop the Goldstone report.

...What everyone will be watching is likely to be a side show of diplomatic niceties and measured statements. It is likely to be a defense of the Palestinian people by Palestinian representatives who have been cowered by pressure from the US so that they will never challenge the legitimacy of the Israeli state that was created in violation of the right to self-determination of the indigenous Palestinian people.

...In the end, what is likely to emerge is another resolution that Israel will promptly dismiss and discard with a long list of resolutions that it has already refused to implement. I

...the Security Council has created several courts, most recently the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, to investigate and try individuals for the killing of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 of his aides and body guards. It is unlikely, however, that the world body will treat the killing of over 1,400 Palestinians, including at least 850 civilians, 300 children and 110 women, as equally as important as the killing of 23 Lebanese who were, after all, allied with the West.

The General Assembly plenary meeting on the Goldstone report will be a watershed event that will indicate to ordinary Palestinians who is willing to act to ensure their right to self-determination. The unfortunate answer may be no one but they themselves through a third intifada. Full story