FrontPage Magazine reports on another biased annual human rights report on Israel by the U.S. State Department:
Ever since the days when the Carter administration required that the U.S. oversee human rights policies and practices that remain an integral part of the policies of all nations abroad, the U.S. State Department has issued an annual country-by-country report to evaluate the human rights practices of nations throughout the world. By law, that annual report is submitted by the U.S. State Department to the U.S. Congress during the third week of the month of February.
. . . What has consistently characterized these reports has been the tendency of State to rely without question on the reports of left-wing Israeli political organizations. This year's report was no exception.
Why is the State Department unable to find the names of murdered Israeli children in their analysis titled "Country Report on Human Rights Practices, 2003--Israel," released on February 25, 2004? The report, put out to the U.S. and worldwide media, shows a significant bias against Israel and openly is in favor of Palestinians throughout its entire 50 pages.
Consider this, from the introduction, which sets the tone for the entire report:
"Since 1991, the Israelis and the Palestinians made repeated attempts at negotiating peace. Despite meetings between high-level Israeli and Palestinian officials, efforts to resolve the conflict yielded few results..."
Such a statement gives the distinct impression that both sides made equal effort. The reality, which is glossed over, is that during the course of the Oslo process, from 1993 to 2000, Israel met its obligations and turned over significant areas to the control of the Palestinian Authority, while the PA failed to meet its obligations. No less a participant than former President Clinton laid the blame for failure of the process squarely on PA President Arafat. Yet the State Department chooses not even to suggest that this might have been the case.
The article details many more misrepresentations, and is well worth reading in full.
The fog got particularly thick this week when State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the assassination of Hamas founder and "spiritual leader" Ahmed Yassin was "deeply troubling," would increase tensions in the region, and could make it harder to pursue peace in the Middle East.
What should be "deeply troubling" is Yassin's murderous record, which the Israel National News recounts:
[Yassin] oversaw a total of 425 attacks - including the Park Hotel Seder massacre - that killed 377 Israelis and wounded 2,076.
Among the worst Hamas attacks in the past 3.5 years of the Palestinian Authority-initiated Oslo War were the following ten, which ended the lives of a total of 186 people:
June 1, 2001 - Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv, 21 killed - mostly new-immigrant teenagers from the former Soviet Union
Aug. 9, 2001 - Sbarro's Pizzeria in Jerusalem, 15 killed, including the parents and three children of the Schijveschuurder family
Dec. 2, 2001 - Haifa bus, 15 killed
March 27, 2002 - Park Hotel in the midst of the Passover Seder, 30 killed, including six husband-and-wife couples
March 31, 2002 - Matza Restaurant in Haifa, 15 killed, including two sets of a father and two children
May 7, 2002 - Rishon Letzion hall, 16 killed
June 18, 2002 - #32 bus from Gilo, Jerusalem, 19 killed
March 5, 2003 - #37 bus in Haifa, 15 killed
June 11, 2003 - #14 bus, Jerusalem, 17 killed
Aug. 19, 2003 - #2 bus from Western Wall, 23 killed, including a mother and baby; father and son; and four other children
To express opposition to the State Department's bias against Israel, contact the Department and Secretary of State Colin Powell here.
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