My letter to the LATimes RE The Goldstone report & George Bisharat 's EXCELLENT op-ed

Red roses are seen on the Palestinian Martyr's cemetery at Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, during a ceremony marking the 27th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982, September 17, 2009. The Arabic words read "The martyrs of Sabra and Shatila". REUTERS/Nour Bou Khalil (LEBANON POLITICS ANNIVERSARY)

RE: Goldstone report: Israel's failings, A U.N. report finds war crimes in last winter's fighting; now Israel must be held accountable. By George Bisharat http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-la.1.mn_commentary.newart2-2009sep18,0,3402202.story
Goldstone report unfair to Israel, It was hardly a fact-finding mission; political considerations made its conclusions of war crimes by Israel preordained. By Jeremy Sharon http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-la.1.mn_commentary.newart3-2009sep18,0,4123099.story

Dear Editor,

Good to see George Bisharat's precisely worded and carefully reasoned Goldstone report: Israel's failings, A U.N. report finds war crimes in last winter's fighting; now Israel must be held accountable.

Recently Jessica Montell, executive director of B’Tselem, bemoaned the misuse of human rights research and documentation by ideologues and provocateurs: "Indeed, all those committed to advancing human rights must firmly reject such offensive sloganeering and the trivializing of genuine human rights concerns. Only a careful naming of the reality can fuel genuine efforts to promote justice." Demagoguery vs. Human Rights http://www.forward.com/articles/114201/

The intrepid Hussein Ibish, Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) , sums up the reports on the report well with his headline " Israel and Hamas respond to the Goldstone report with the same logic and language" http://www.ibishblog.com/blog/hibish/2009/0917/israel_and_hamas_respond_goldstone_report_same_logic_and_language

And as Michael Mylrea wisely points out in Peace and prosperity in Palestine "Unless there is immediate progress toward establishing a sovereign Palestinian state, there will be a deadly third intifada that could quickly escalate into a major regional conflict." http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=126507&d=18&m=9&y=2009

Perhaps, rather than getting lost in all the sloganeering and distractions and hate mongering sure to arise from every report regarding the Israel/Palestine conflict we need a basic rule of thumb to help explain to all involved what really is: If you earnestly care about the very real plight and suffering of the Palestinians and you read Haaretz, or quote B’Tselem (or the Goldstone report- or reports on the report) you really should also be actively supporting a two state solution.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

P.S. Ibish, following up his article on the Goldstone report with A false equivalency of false equivalencies? also reminds his readers that "For the record, let me state that interesting symmetries and parallels aside, the most salient feature of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the radical asymmetry at its heart between an occupied and dispossessed people who are, at best, lightly armed, and a major nation-state with one of the world's most powerful militaries and myriad additional resources and international support."