Richard
Maize Creates Websites To Refute UN Israel Gaza Goldstone Report
As Hamas attacks Israel from Gaza with terror suicide bombers
and over 8,000 rockets
while hiding behind children, the UN Goldstone Report equates
Israel with Hamas.
By Joel
Leyden
Israel News Agency
Tel Aviv,
Israel ---- September 18, 2009 ..... The Richard Maize Foundation
has taken to the defense of Israel and human rights by creating
numerous information Websites to address the biased UN Goldstone
Report on the Israel Gaza war.
"When
the UN Goldstone Report was released anyone could see that it
was highly biased, one sided, a pure example of discrimination
against Israel," said Richard Maize.
"There
was not one word in that UN report that alluded to the fact that
Israel was forced to defend herself against 8,000 missile attacks
from Gaza. Only the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and HonestReporting.com
had limited and coordinated efforts using the Web. So we created
a handful of extremely powerful Web 2.0 PR news sites which were
SEO optimized for the search engines that addressed both the UN
Goldstone Report and Human
Rights in Israel."
Two of the
pro Israel Websites are Israel Human Rights and the UN
Goldstone Report, both of which have been highlighted on Facebook,
MySpace, DIGG, Twitter, Google and Yahoo groups, Blogger and dozens
of other new media social networking Websites.
The Richard
Maize sponsored sites made sure to address several facts including
that Israel did not deliberately target the civilian population
of Gaza and, in fact, made every effort to prevent civilian casualties
that no other army in the world would have done. That contrary
to the assertions of the UN Goldstone Report, Hamas did use Palestinian
civilians as human shields and the world public can view Hamas
admitting as such on YouTube. The Goldstone Report is not objective
and is, in fact tainted by bias and politicization, both from
the UN Human Rights Council and members of the mission itself.
That the UN Gaza report relied upon the contributions of anti-Israel
non-governmental organizations and unreliable Palestinian "eyewitnesses."
The Maize Foundation sites enhanced the PR and public affairs
effort made by Israel to illustrate that Israel respects human
rights and has a sophisticated legal and judicial system. Hamas
does not. Yet the UN Goldstone Israel Gaza Report has created
an unjust equivalence of a democratic state with a terror organization.
The
Rochelle and Richard Maize Foundation is a philanthropic organization
that supports and contributes volunteer and financial resources
to causes locally in the community and worldwide by supporting
programs focusing on art, culture, family services, health care
and human rights.
Richard Maize
has supported organizations and causes including the American
Cancer Society, Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services, Hurricane
Katrina, Los Angeles Police Foundation, the 18th Israel Maccabiah
Games and Cedars Sinai Board of Governors.
Israel President
Shimon Peres responded to the UN Goldstone Israel Gaza Report
saying that it "makes a mockery of history" and that
"it does not distinguish between the aggressor and the defender."
"War
is a crime and the attacker is the criminal. The defender has
no choice. The Hamas terror organization is the one who started
the war and also carried out other awful crimes. Hamas has used
terrorism for years against Israel children," Peres stated.
Peres did
not hold back his anger when he received a delegation of the British
Labor Friends of Israel in Jerusalem yesterday. "We are outraged
by the criticism of British universities," said Peres. "What
do they want us to do, allow our children to be murdered? Who
are the criminals of war - the aggressors or the defenders?"
Israel Prime
Minister Netanyahu joined Peres in condemning the racist 574-page
UN investigation of conduct during the Israel Hamas war in Gaza
last January.
"The Goldstone Report is a field court-marital, and its findings
were prewritten," said Netanyahu."This is a prize for
terror. The report makes it difficult for democracies to fight
terror."
The UN Goldstone
Report stated: "In the fighting in Gaza, all sides flouted
that fundamental principle... that in armed conflict civilians
should to the greatest extent possible be protected from harm."
By making
this statement, Judge Richard Goldstone equated a terror group
- Hamas with the only democracy in the Middle-East. And in doing
so failed to mention that Hamas had attacked Israel cities and
towns with Qassam rockets fired from civilian homes, schools and
UN facilities. That during the actual engagement between the Israel
Defense Forces and Hamas, Hamas fired automatic weapons hiding
behind Palestinian children. At several points Hamas literally
dragged these children with them as they moved from point to point.
Goldstone
completely ignored the facts that murdering Israel civilians is
one of Hamas' central goals. That it was Hamas that organized
suicide attacks and sent its terrorists to blow themselves up
on Israel buses in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in hotel lobbies in
Netanya and at restaurants in Jerusalem. That Hamas has clearly
stated that it remains committed in word and deed to the total
destruction of Israel.
"The
Goldstone Commission is a commission established with the aim
of finding Israel guilty of crimes ahead of time, the commission
was dispatched by countries in which the terms 'human rights'
and 'combat ethics' are unknown," said Israel Foreign Minister
Lieberman.
Lieberman
added: "the IDF was forced to deal with the lowest form of
terrorists that set themselves the goal of murdering women and
children by hiding behind women and children. The state of Israel
will continue to protect its citizens from the attacks of the
terrorists and the terror organizations, and will continue to
protect its soldiers from hypocritical and distorted attacks."
Former UN
Human Rights director Mary Robinson, as well as former Finnish
president Martti Ahtisaari, were among the many international
personalities that refused UN offers to head the Gaza mission.
"Unfortunately, the Human Rights Council passed a resolution
seeking a fact-finding mission to only look at what Israel had
done, and I dont think thats a human rights approach,"
said Robinson. "The UN Goldstone Report was guided not by
human rights but by politics".
The evidence
in the UN Report, as Goldstone notes, was based almost entirely
on unverifiable Palestinian claims and publications from politicized
pro Palestinian NGOs. The UN Goldstone report cites B'Tselem and
the Palestinian Center for Human Rights more than 70 times each
and Al-Haq allegations get more than 30 mentions.
Israel has
opened investigations into over 100 allegations regarding the
conduct of the Israel Defense Forces during the Gaza Cast Lead
Operation. Hamas has not conducted one investigation of its activities
during the war.
"We have
very serious concerns about many recommendations in the report,"
said US Ambassador Susan Rice who serves as the permanent US representative
to the UN. "We will expect and believe that the appropriate
venue for this report to be considered is the Human Rights Council,"
Rice said yesterday, in the first official American response to
Goldstone's report. "We have long expressed our very serious
concern with the mandate that was given by the Human Rights Council
prior to our joining the council, which we viewed as unbalanced,
one-sided and basically unacceptable."
British trade
labor unions yesterday agreed to support a boycott of Israel products
in response to the offensive in Gaza last winter. The boycott,
proposed by the Fire Brigades Union, calls for a ban on importing
goods produced in some Israel settlements, an end of arms trading
with Israel and disinvestment from some companies.
In reaction
to the approval of an anti - Israel boycott by the UK trades union,
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) called for a boycott of British
goods by Israel consumers. "I call on the public to build
a Jewish wall, to counter a boycott with a boycott, and not to
purchase goods from Britain," said Ben-Ari.
Noam Shalit
joined hundreds of Israel diplomats and journalists questioning
the findings of the UN Goldstone Commission. The UN Goldstone
Report refers to Gilad Shalit as a prisoner of war
and not as a captive or hostage. Noam
Shalit pointed out that even if his son Gilad is a prisoner of
war, one can only question why he is not granted the minimum rights
given to POWs, visits from humanitarian agencies and other basic
human rights including receiving visits from medical professionals
and family members.
"As long
as Judge Richard Goldstone doesn't probe human rights abuses in
Darfur, Iran, Russia, Syria, Lebanon, China, Saudi Arabia, Sri
Lanka or Turkey, just as he probed Israel, he is not a moral figure.
A law is a law only when it applies to everyone and does not discriminate,
as Goldstone did, says Richard Maize.
"We trust
that the objective and well documented information Websites that
we have created in response to the UN Goldstone Report will serve
both political leaders and members of the media who are reporting
on a fact finding mission which sounds more like something out
of Disneyland than a respected legal or ethical organization."