BREAKING NEWS: Olmert says groups using Goldstone Gaza report to attack us are ‘hypocritical’

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November 13, 2009

Haaretz - 12 November 2009

A damning United Nations report on Israel’s winter offensive against Hamas in Gaza is being used to attack Israel by “self-righteous and hypocritical” groups, former prime minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday.
Israel should only give the report the attention it deserves and continue to fight terrorism, said Olmert, who decided to launch the three-week offensive at the end of his term in office.

The UN report, which was authored by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes during the winter offensive, but focused mainly on alleged Israeli offences.

Speaking near Jerusalem during the unveiling of a memorial for the victims of the 9/11 terror attack in the United States, Olmert added that there was a clear difference between terrorists and the countries that fight them.

“It is not a simple war, and it does occur that in the course of this war that people who are uninvolved in terror are affected by it,” he said.

“But there is one dramatic difference which always we have to bear in mind between the victims, that we memorialize today, and those who are unfortunately being affected by acts against the terrorists.

“When they attack, when they commit suicidal attacks, their main purpose is to kill innocent civilians.”

President Shimon Peres, meanwhile, told Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during a meeting in Brasilia on Wednesday that Goldstone is a man devoid of any real sense of justice and is intent on harming Israel.