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Israel Is Both Keen and Able to Hold Itself to Account

(Times-UK) Editorial - Unlike many of its neighbors, Israel has a strong domestic desire to hold itself to account. In addition, condemnatory megaphone diplomacy does not work. For an example of such ineffective megaphone diplomacy, consider Judge Richard Goldstone's report on the Gaza conflict for the UN, released last September. Both dangerously and unreasonably, Judge Goldstone implied an equivalence between the indiscriminate rocket fire with which Hamas bombarded Israel and the steps that Israel subsequently took to defend itself. Faced with the Goldstone report's provocative bias, a country might be expected to slam down the shutters and turn away. Instead, the Middle East's only functioning democracy quietly continued to conduct its own investigation into the conflict, which it has now submitted to the UN. Those who cry "war crime" and seek to paint Israel as a pariah do diplomacy itself a disservice. Israel is not a rogue state. It is an accountable, democratic, transparent nation, and fighting to remain one amid challenges that few other nations ever have to face.
2010-02-02 07:56:42
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