And the world is silent…

Three events, occurring over the same 48 hours, in three different locations:

In New York, the UN General Assembly endorsed the Goldstone Report into Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’ against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

In the waters off the coast of Cyprus, the Israeli navy intercepted a vessel containing 300 tons of weaponry and explosives destined for Hizballah, dispatched by Iran.

In Iran itself, mass crowds gathered to curse the ‘Great Satan’, the United States, on the 30^th anniversary of the US Embassy hostage crisis which followed the revolution that overturned the Shah’s secular autocracy and ushered in the Islamist reign of the Ayatollahs.

The UN vote was predictable – more General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel have been passed than against every other country combined. However, there is something particularly insidious about the Goldstone Report.  In the first place, it was commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, a body that has Israel as an agenda item for every meeting and the likes of Sudan and Libya deciding what constitutes human rights abuse. Moreover, one of the members of the Commission had already signed a letter to The Times condemning Israel for “war crimes” before the commission had conducted its investigation.

The flurry of activity in the international community over Goldstone stands in marked contrast to its deafening silence following Israel’s capture of the shipment of arms which included thousands of Katyusha rockets and an incredible 9,000 mortar shells; all en route to Hizballah, the Lebanese terrorist organization which acts as Iran’s proxy in the region.

The western powers are frantically searching for a way to prevent Iran going nuclear without the need for an Israeli military strike, which they fear could lead to all-out war.  But they are silent on the war that Iran has been waging against Israel all along.  In violation of international law and numerous UN Security Council resolutions, Tehran has been relentlessly arming and supporting Hizballah and Hamas, establishing de facto Iranian bases in Southern Lebanon and in Gaza.

Without Iran’s supporting of “the armed resistance” against Israel, there would have been no need for Israel’s military action in Gaza which precipitated the Goldstone Report.  So when will we see a UN-commissioned report examining Iran’s role in the terrorism directed at Israel’s citizens over the past decade?

I will not be holding my breath.

This was published  in The Jewish News on 13/11/09.