The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations welcomes and strongly supports the important and timely bi-partisan resolution (H. Res. 867) the House of Representatives is considering for a vote tomorrow, which identifies the Goldstone Report as “irredeemably biased” and based on “a flawed and biased mandate.” It urges the Obama administration to oppose any endorsement or further consideration of the report. This resolution is especially timely as the UN General Assembly takes up the report this week and will no doubt put fuel on the fires of disinformation, misinformation and deception. Co-sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) and Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) along with committee members, the resolution also states that Hamas was able to “significantly shape the findings of the investigation.”
“We thank Chairman Berman and Rep. Ros-Lehtinen for their leadership in recognizing the wholly biased and one-sided nature of the mandate of the Goldstone Commission and the subsequently flawed and prejudiced report that emerged and for calling upon the full House of Representatives to discredit it. The Goldstone Report is an outrageous attack on Israel’s right to self-defense and obligation to protect its citizens after more than eight years of unyielding attacks with thousands of missiles and mortars fired on civilian targets by Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist organizations. Israel specifically selected Hamas military targets and used pinpoint strikes in order to avoid civilian casualties, while Hamas launched rockets indiscriminately into neighborhoods in southern Israel. The report virtually ignores Hamas’ action as it does all the evidence demonstrating the restraint shown by the government and the IDF. It also ignores the hundreds of truckloads of humanitarian aid delivered by Israel to civilians in Gaza during the war and the scores of people evacuated from Gaza to Israel for medical needs,” said Conference of Presidents Chairman Alan Solow and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein.
“We hope that the full House will follow the lead of Chairman Berman and Rep. Ros-Lehtinen to expose and oppose this prejudiced document and reject its findings,” said Solow and Hoenlein.
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The Conference of Presidents is the central coordinating body representing 51 national Jewish organizations on issues of national and international concern.
