Sweden: Israel erred in not cooperating with Gaza probe

It is a War Crime to fire a rocket you cannot target, Period. It is against all international laws. So is "suicide bombing" it is called Murder. It is against law in every civilized country in the world. Please stop making silly excuses. Just because you disagree with a government you don't have the right to get on a bus and kill the civilian bus riders. The Pals being "stateless" as you put it, is self inflicted. They could have had a state in 1947, the rejected it. Now they want to get back what they rejected, whose fault is that? Certainly not Israels. Then they fight their war from civilian(residential)areas..another War Crime...just for PR purposes...hoping the IDF will hit people around the terrorists. Nice Try, but wrong on all counts.

their mandate was to convict israel. and they set out to do just that. why would they let the facts confuse them. 8 years of terror are not reason enough to go after palestinian murderers. after all - it's only jewish blood that was shed for 8 years...

The reasons why there are no UN resolutions against the Palestinians are because they are a STATELESS people living under a MILITARY OCCUPATION. They also have the legal right to resist the Israeli occupation. And while the Palestinians would love to have a quarter of the military hardware of Israel - they don't - and that makes it very difficult to not hit civilians(what's Israel's excuse?). Their homemade, crude 'rockets' are probably legal under international law being they are a form of resistance. They could argue, as does Israel, that Israel's military installations are situated near civilian infrastructure - which is true. As one of your neocon favorites once said, "you don't fight wars with the Army you wish you had, you fight with that which you do have". This applies, most fittingly, with the victims of Israeli aggression and war crimes..

In other words a helpless case bound for exposure , the nightmare of every sane Criminal Law defense counselor around.

The same carl bildt that supported the recent blood libel about IDF harvesting organs (with no evidence whatsoever) in his swedish tabloid. What a surprise!

I think it was a mistake of Sweden for not cooperating with justice and truth in regards to the false, anti-Semitic stories in Swedish media claiming Jews were harvesting Arab's organs. Do you think anyone in Israel nowadays values what Sweden has to say?

Now why would Sweden think the Israelis erred by not cooperating in this venture - they should understand that the IDF was too busy harvesting organs as reported by their tabloid press!!!

Only a fool would have cooperated with the Goldstone commission. The results of this "inquiry" were pre-ordained. They had stated that Israel had committed "war crimes" even before Goldstone stepped on the plane for the Middle East. And such members of the commission as Professor Chilkin had already made up their minds and were oblivious to any contradictory evidence. But what do you expect from the UN and UNHRC??? The only "mistake" that was made was Goldstone's accepting the mandate to head this commission. His credentials and good name were used by the UN to give credibility to this obscenity.

First off, Israel has thoroughly alienated just about everyone in the world outside of the United States and perhaps Canada. Secondly, US power is in free-fall. Third, Obama is not exactly determined to make this marriage work. If anyone twists his arm... Maybe this won't be the time, but it's a coming... This is South Africa all over again. Whether it's 1970 or 1980 remains to be seen.

Carl Bildt ??? Wasn't this the fellow who protected that article about organ harvesting by the IDF ? Yes, this affable and correct "Jewish lover", who decided not to visit Israel because of his proactive stances vis a vis Israel, he is the fellow who is advising Israel ? Well, I would suggest Mr Bildt stay in Sweden , and not offer his pro Israel comments or his pro palestinian convictions. Sweden holds the EU presidency : let's hope he doesn't cause too much harm .

..a 5th Amendment, sort of thing? I am guilty but don't have to cooperate with the DA?

Carl Bildt is an ambitious, intelligent, and communicative man. However, sometimes his ambition may outweight his intelligence. While many countires in the EU may agree with his comments, how many of them agree with the Goldstone's conclusions may be a different result. He may well believe that Israel was justified by responding to the rocket attacks and should have given the international community an opportuity to hear their side of the debate. Apparently, the UNSC did not think it was necessary.

Sounds to me like Carl Bildt wants to be taken very seriously & he doesnt know that Jews do not bow down before anything but the Lord himself .. Sir you are erred in treating us like we are your people.

If Israel is as guilty in Gaza as it was in Jenin, where counter to the claims about hundreds of dead 52 dead Palestinians were found, then I guess it is O?K. Just one NATO air strike in Afghanistan kills more civilians. Wait a second Israel is not NATO member state then let?s bring a second set of standards up. It is only O?K for the US, UK, and NATO to kill civilians. Their common practice is if civilians are killed as the result of air strike just keep apologizing and expressing deepest regrets and you can continue killing civilians. Since Europeans appointed themselves to judge the world they always believe each others arguments that in their case it was unintentional, isolated incident but always pass different judgment when it comes to Israel.

The only possible defense was to not cooperate then smear the investigator and report. Not that it was a good defense, it was the only possible defense.

How many UN Resolutions are there condemning Palestinian Rocket attacks against Israel? NONE. NOT EVER. Why would Israel or any reasonable person expect the UN to be fair towards Israel? We all know when a rocket lacks the targeting capacity to hit a specific target, and you lob 8000 or so into civilian areas...with the intention of killing civilians...that is by every definition a War Crime. Yet the UN has never even issued ONE Resolution condemning it. After 8000 rockets each one constituting a separate War Crime. SAD!! While at the same time the UN...controlled by the Overwhelming number of Muslim countries... only to happy to run to that same UN every-time Israel gives one of them a hang nail. The result: Israel has no confidence that the UN will act as a neutral arbitrator. Even to the casual observer the UN bias against Israel is so blatant I'm surprised anyone would take this report(almost any report regarding Israel)without deep suspicion to its questionable neutrality.

As they were in Jenin. So what? Israel can thumb its nose at the international community throwing out allegations of anti-semitism, bias, imbalance in criticism,etc. It works. They get their way by playing victim and playing the Holcaust card. They demand to be judged by their own standards. Sweden says this cannot stand. That if Israel did not cooperate then the international community must hold them and Hamas accountable. Israel then threatens and sends out its moldovan pitbull to cajole and twist arms threatening that if the internationalcommunity takes up the Goldstone Report then there will be no peace process, so there!! The world is getting fed up and Israel may have overplayed its card and time is running out. That is why Israel is responding by grabbing more land in Palestine. Its own little fortress, but like King Abdullah pointed out: walls inevitably come down.

If Israel DID cooperate with the UN team, then it would appear to find itself guilty which would have put it in a tougher situ to be able to control.

Sweden currently holds the presidency of the EU. If their foreign minister said something like this, be sure that it had the backing of the rest of the EU countries.