JERUSALEM — A U.N. war crimes report against Israel and Hamas meant to promote justice and accountability has instead created new obstacles for the Obama administration's Mideast peace push and deepened an internal rift among Palestinians.Israel says that if the case against it gains steam, the Jewish state will not be able to make the wide-ranging concessions necessary for any peace deal.
Hamas, the militant group that violently seized control of the Gaza Strip more than two years ago, is reaping benefits from the report's fallout, while shrugging off the serious allegations the document makes against its own fighters.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Western-backed Palestinian president whose forces hold sway in the West Bank, has been seriously weakened by perceptions among his people that he caved in to U.S. pressure over the affair.
The 575-page report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes during last winter's war in Gaza — compiled by the respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone — has largely overshadowed an aggressive U.S. drive to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
A month after the report's release, Israeli leaders are denouncing it daily and speaking about little else.
International condemnation of Israel is gaining momentum, meanwhile, with two U.N. debates on the Goldstone report scheduled this week.
At a meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Malki and Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev traded accusations about the report, with Shalev accusing the world of "doing nothing" about Hamas' smuggling of Iranian arms into Gaza, its launching of attacks from schools, mosques and hospitals, or firing rockets at innocent civilians.
Source: FoxNews
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