By Ramzy Baroud
'We may be witnessing the beginning of the end of the era of impunity,' Nadia Hijab, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Palestine Studies, was quoted by IPS in response to the findings of a 574-page report by a four-member United Nations Fact finding mission. The mission, led by internationally-renowned former South African supreme court justice and chief prosecutor in the international tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, investigated alleged war crimes committed by Israeli troops in Gaza in a 23-day bloody, unprecedented onslaught against a largely defenseless population. But Hijab was not the only one who expressed optimism. Others did, encouraged perhaps, by the report’s use of terminology unfamiliar in a conflict where empirical experience has shown that Israeli actions, no matter how outrageously violent, will have no meaningful legal repercussions whatsoever. Goldstone’s report, released on September 15, made some important recommendations, following a most thorough investigation that was carefully compiled by the mission – which was organized by the UN Human Rights Council last April. One is that the UN Security Council should set up a team of experts to monitor Israel’s investigations of the war crimes committed in Gaza. If Israel fails to do so, then the situation should be referred to the Prosecutor in the International Criminal Court (ICC). This raises many questions, lead amongst them is: did Israel commit war crimes in Gaza, and, second, is Israel capable of conducting an honest investigation into those crimes, considering the state’s bloody legacy and lack of any serious legal accountability. Goldstone answers both questions. “The mission concluded that actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly in some respects crimes against humanity, were committed by the Israel Defense Force,” Goldstone told reporters on September 16. He also said that the Israeli government has carried out no credible investigation. Despite his recommendations that UN experts follow the progress of the internal investigation by Israel, and the Palestinians (since they too were accused of violating international law by lobbing home-made rockets into Israel, without taking into account the possible harm to civilians) it’s puzzling why Goldstone would think that any genuine investigation is possible in the first place. Goldstone knows, as many of us already do, that the events in Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of 1,387 (other estimates put the number at 1,417, mostly civilians, including over 300 children), the wounding of thousands more, the targeting of an already dilapidating infrastructure (hospitals, police stations, factories, schools, and even chicken farms) of a deprived and besieged society was very much a political decision made at the highest levels by the likes of Olmert, Livni, Barak and other serial criminals who have tormented Palestinians for too long. Palestinians were also chastised for rockets fired from besieged Gaza. Of course, Goldstone was not expected to justify or applaud the homemade rockets, or even underline their lack of effectiveness, as four Israelis were killed by rocket fire, during the period of the war. Out of the nine Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting, four were killed in friendly fire. While both Hamas and the PA fully cooperated with Goldstone and his colleagues, Israel fully rejected the mission, refusing entry into Israel or Gaza, forcing the use of alternative routes into the besieged strip, through Egypt. Israeli officials claim that the report was pre-written, rendering it biased from the start. They used the same predictable pattern of smears, redundant diatribes and predictable language. Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said the report created unjust “equivalence of a democratic state with a terror organization,” in reference to Hamas. Following the good old democracy reference, racism kicks in. “We have nothing to be ashamed of, and don’t need lessons in morality from a committee established by Syria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Somalia,” Levy said. Apparently dark-skinned people of the South are both incapable of being democratic or moral. Only Israel and her allies are capable of those qualities. “The Goldstone report has set a new standard for equating the behavior of democratic nations and terrorists,” wrote Richard Sideman, President of the New York-based American Jewish Committee in a letter published in the New York Times on September 18. The same disingenuous sentiment utilized by Levy and Sideman (how curious that both seemed to be using the same script) echoed by many Israeli officials and their lobbyists abroad, who went into crisis management mode following the release of the report. But why should they care? Could it be because Goldstone called on the 192-member General Assembly to establish an escrow fund so that Israel can compensate Palestinians in Gaza? Israel would never spend its hard-earned US tax payers money on such frivolous matters. Could it be because the Human Rights Council is convening on September 29 in Geneva to discuss the report, and could call for its transfer to the Security Council, and even the ICC? Could it be because the report’s findings might empower an already growing boycott movement world-wide? Could it be because it’s much harder to doubt the credibility of Goldstone, to smear him as anti-Semite or a self-hating Jew? Could it be because all these factors are escalating Israeli fears that the “era of impunity” is indeed over? “Perhaps next time we set out to wage another vain and miserable war, we will take into account not only the number of fatalities we are likely to sustain, but also the heavy political damage such wars cause,” wrote Israeli columnist Gideon Levy. One would have to wait for the next miserable war, the next massacre to find out whether Israel has learned its lesson. Until then, thousands of starved, desperate yet resilient Palestinians in Gaza continue to live in their makeshift tents, atop the rubble, which was once called home, awaiting food, cement and international justice. - Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers, journals, and anthologies around the world. His latest book is, "The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle" (Pluto Press, London), and his forthcoming book is, "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story" (Pluto Press, London).
NADIA said... UP
Check this comment
---If there is anything that might give the Palestinians any hope of salvaging anything left, it will not be coming from the UN. It will have to come from facts the Palestinians themselves establish on the ground.
After 60 years, haven't the Palestinians learned that yet? -- Tony Sayegh
9:06 AM, September 20, 2009
Dear Nadia
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Nadia
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The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine denounced the U.S. position supporting the Israeli massacre in Gaza and the U.S. condemnation of the United Nations fact-finding report on Gaza. The PFLP noted in its statement on September 19, 2009 that the U.S. is exhibiting once again its strategic alliance with the occupation state and its war crimes. The PFLP statement noted that the U.S. is a model of blindness to "human rights" when it comes to explicit war crimes and violations committed daily by the occupier against the Palestinian people and land and holy places, which are condemned by the vast majority of peoples around the world. The PFLP demanded that the international community take action to bring the occupier to justice, calling upon the Arab League and the PLO leadership to call for the UN Security Council to adopt the recommendations of the fact-finding mission against the occupier, and for the International Criminal Court to prosecute the occupation officials for war crimes. The PFLP demanded an end to the official international silence and complicity with occupation crimes and demanded that these institutions exercise their responsibilities to punish war criminals whose crimes are visible to all. A spokesperson for the PFLP further noted that the Goldstone report, issued by the United Nations, only once again makes clear the extent of the brutality, war crimes, racism and massacres committed by the occupier. The spokesperson stated that it was the responsibility of the United Nations to take action to hold the occupier accountable for its crimes. Furthermore, the spokesperson commented that the section of the report that attempts to label Palestinian resistance operations, including the launching of missiles against the occupier, as war crimes, is an unacceptable attempt to limit the right of the occupied people to resist their occupier, and to place the occupier and the occupied on a level playing field where no such reality exists. The PFLP spokesperson stressed that there is no equality between occupier and occupied and that the rockets are part of the just and legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people seeking to free ourselves from ongoing occupation and oppression. Comrade Leila Khaled, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP, commented also on the visit of U.S. official George Mitchell to the region in an attempt to produce normalization and so-called "negotiations," commenting that the visit comes "within the framework of the U.S. policy that puts Israel's security above all other considerations and treats the occupier as a victim in need of protection and security while it continues to violate our rights." Comrade Khaled said that there is no difference between the policy of the current U.S. administration under President Barack Obama and previous administrations, noting that policy towards the Arab world is driven by imperial interest. She pointed out that Mitchell's visit comes as part of Washington's attempt to promote normalization with Israel and the resumption of the Oslo-like so-called "peace process." She warned against any reliance on the United States' position, saying that Obama's position has not changed at all, and noting that Palestinians are being pressured to enter into yet more fruitless "peace talks" that are designed to provide a cover of "negotiations" for the ongoing settlement of the West Bank and Jerusalem. She confirmed that such "negotiations" are useless for Palestinians and that the current balance of power ensures that any such negotiations would provide benefits and cover only to the occupier as it continues its crimes of settlement, building of the segregation wall, and kidnapping of thousands of Palestinian prisoners. A PFLP statement about Mitchell's visit noted that the U.S. is seeking to replace international legitimacy and UN resolutions with so-called "negotiations," noting that Obama's speech in Cairo is part of a new U.S. approach that attempts to deceive Arabs and Palestinians to participate in U.S. plans in service of U.S./Israeli strategic interests that will ensure normalization, Israeli security and U.S. economic and political hegemony over the region, its people and their resources, as well as holding the people of the region hostage to a cycle of underdevelopment and dependency. Source
By Kawther Salam • Sep 20th, 2009 at 13:29 • Category: Children's CornerThe lawyer of the Women's Organization for Political Prisoners (WOFPP), Taghreed Jahshan, is appealing to everybody from the international community, the European Union, Parliament members, governments, courts, judges, journalists, human rights organizations, peace activists, to rescue the life of a Palestinian girl who was abused SEXUALLY SEVERAL TIMES by an IDF jailer, a warden from the inhuman military jail of Hasharon. lawyer Jahshan stated that the victim is a minor and that the she lives under severe punishment in an isolation cell. Jahshan expressed her great concern after the victim was transferred to an unhealthy isolation cell after she complained formally against the sexual abuse by the warden. She said that the jailer spread the victims cell with poisonous chemicals and locked the door of the cell after five minutes.  The health of the minor is deteriorated after breathing the chemicals. She is vomiting and suffering of constant headache. The inhuman situation and ill treatment which the minor suffers is a clear violation of the duties contracted by Israel by signing the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and other treaties of international humanitarian law. The incarceration of this minor is equally a violation of obligations acquired by Israel to protect civilians, as she is incarcerated and mistreated by Israel solely for being a Palestinian.
Read further information’s published by Women's Organization for Political Prisoners (WOFPP) in English, Arabic as PDF, and Hebrew as PDFPDF. 19 Septmber 2009 Since the last month WOFPP has accompanied, with deep concern, the minor political prisoner who complained of sexual harassment by one of the guards in Hasharon Prison where she was held.  WOFPP's lawyer, Taghreed Jahshan, visited the prisoner many times during the recent period and has sent a very urgent letter, on 6 September 2009, to the Prisons Service Commissioner, with copies to the Central Area's Commander and other persons of the Service Prison staff and to the Chairman of the Bar Association's Prisons Committee.
Since there was no reply, another urgent letter was sent on 14 September, and again it had not been answered in writing. The letter raised serious claims of the prisoner – verified by affidavit – according to which, following the complaint she has submitted, the Prisons Service harassed the prisoner, by transferring her to another prison to the isolation/separation wing in which criminal prisoners are being held, without any legal basis, and holding her in inhuman conditions: a stuffy, very damp cell, without any sunlight, without TV, ventilator, books (except one book she brought with her) and without handicraft materials. The prison authorities also had taken from the prisoner her head coverings. In addition, there were many ants in the cell that disturbed her sleep at night. In fact, the prisoner sat about 24 hours a day facing the walls without anything to occupy herself with. All these details were reported in a letter to the Prisons Service Commissioner; however he did not see fit to reply in writing concerning these claims. Even worse, probably following the letter, insecticide was sprayed in the wing. The prisoner was taken out of her cell for a few minutes and, immediately after the spraying, she was returned. As a result, she was overcome by feelings of suffocation and dizziness for some hours, and she continued to feel chest pain.
[Additional Comment: this means that the child is being poisoned deliberately with dangerous chemicals by the Prisons Service Commissioner. This is attempted of murder against the girl]
Only on 15/9/09, after a month during which the prisoner was held in the conditions described above, she was transferred to a cell with reasonable conditions, but still in the same isolation/separation wing. These last days, staff members in charge at the prison where the prisoner is detained, made telephone contact with attorney Jahshan and told her that the most senior ranks handle the matter of the prisoner, aiming to find a solution for her by transferring her from the wing which she is held in. Our position is clear in this matter: a political prisoner should be in a political prisoners' wing – there is no other solution. The same staff members promised attorney Jahshan to update her on Monday 21 September 2009. If the decision that will be taken will not meet the required objective, a plea in the prisoner's name will immediately be submitted to the court. Regarding the prisoner's complaint against sexual harassment (attorney Jahshan represents her also in this matter): The prisoner says that she will continue to fight until the guard will get the punishment he deserves. It should be noted that WOFPP is in close and continuous contact with the prisoner's family which is updated on every detail. The minor prisoner has been held in isolation/separation for over a month and probably will have to spend the holiday of Eid-elFiter alone. Isolation/separation is a kind of torture Please write letters of protest to the Israel Prisons Service: Prisons Service Commissioner
P.O. Box 81
Ramle 72100
Israel
Fax: +972-8-9193800 And to the Israeli embassy in your country. Tagged as: Geneva-Conventions, Israel, Jail, Sexual Abuse, Taghreed Jahshan, WOFPP
 Kawther Salam is a Palestinian journalist. She had a career of over 20 years working for various newspapers and TV stations in Palestine. She forced to live in the Exile in Vienna since 2002.
Email this author All posts by Kawther Salam
20/09/2009 Israeli director Samuel Maoz's "Lebanon" has being given an angry reception by critics and bloggers in Lebanon, the scene of Israeli invasions, massacres, wars and occupation.
"This film shows the Israeli point of view," wrote the Venice correspondent of the Lebanese daily An-Nahar.
"It depicts an operation of self-defence where the 'Other' does not exist, where the enemy is hidden, absent, treated as 'terrorist'," the correspondent wrote.
Maoz's film relives the director's own experience as a young Israeli soldier in Lebanon in 1982 through the viewpoint of the tank's gunner.
In the film, Israeli soldiers confined to their tank do not see the horrors and massacres they leave in their wake: a woman on the verge of insanity after the death of her child, an elderly man consumed by hate, the agony of a gutted donkey, and more.
And while the director has claimed his film was not political, many
Lebanese journalists who saw the film during the Venice festival earlier this month are not convinced.
The daily Al-Mustaqbal said the film was an attempt to erase 40 years of "Israeli aggression."
"The public here in Italy mourned the four soldiers who suffered -- and not the victims of war," it said.
"The film serves only to show the supposed humanity of the Zionist state, which wages war 'against its will' and 'in pain'."
The daily Al-Akhbar also lambasted the film.
"Many thought it was an anti-war film that criticized the wars waged by the Israeli state and its military, but in reality it is nowhere near critical," it said.
"(Maoz) merely tells of the psychological crisis experienced by four soldiers inside a tank," the daily said.
"The film falls, as expected, into the logic that transforms the executioner into a victim or a quasi-victim," An-Nahar wrote.
"Twenty-seven years after killing someone for the first time in his life, Maoz replaces the tank with a camera. The first is used to kill, the second to convince ... but the truth is lost."
Local critics have also drawn parallels with Israeli director Ari Folman's 2008 animation "Waltz with Bashir," which won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination.
"Maoz benefited from the wave started by Ari Folman at Cannes, and the Israeli trend of examining the tortured conscience continues with success," wrote Al-Akhbar, which ran the headline "Waltz with Samuel Maoz!"
Also a former Israeli soldier who took part in the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Folman's hero, Ari, is haunted by the memories of the massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila and sets off on a quest for a past he cannot remember.
Lebanese entries on blogs and Twitter are also filled with angry reaction to "Lebanon."
The blog "Angry Arab News Service" describes Maoz's film as "an Israeli war movie that paid tribute to killers and butchers of the Israeli army who specialize in killing women in children.
"So this Zionist clown dedicates this movie (I will review it once I get my unpurchased copy) to the warriors and not to the victims of the terrorist Israeli warriors," the blogger said.
"Great, another Israeli film about Lebanon that only humanizes Israeli soldiers and not Lebanese/Palestinians victims," said a tweet from Lebanon.
The Israeli occupation authorities denied entry to thousands of West Bank Palestinians into occupied Jerusalem to attend the Eid prayers at the Aqsa Mosque.
LinkSeptember 20, 2009 at 7:59 am ( Israel, Palestine, United Nations, War Crimes) 
Comment: That brief interlud reflect his Zionist realty as Zionist, at the best a low calorie Zionist UM-Shmum, UM-Boom
Uri Avnery Denial is the first refuge. There is no difference between the deniers of the Armenian genocide, the deniers of the annihilation of the Native Americans and the deniers of the atrocities of all wars.
IS THERE no limit to the wiles of those dastardly anti-Semites? Now they have decided to slander the Jews with another blood libel. Not the old accusation of slaughtering Christian children to use their blood for baking Passover matzoth, as in the past, but of the mass slaughter of women and children in Gaza. And who did they put at the head of the commission which was charged with this task? Neither a British Holocaust-denier nor a German neo-Nazi, nor even an Iranian fanatic, but of all people a Jewish judge who bears the very Jewish name of Goldstone (originally Goldstein, of course). And not just a Jew with a Jewish name, but a Zionist, whose daughter, Nicole, is an enthusiastic Zionist who once “made Aliyah” and speaks fluent Hebrew. And not just a Jewish Zionist, but a South African who opposed apartheid and was appointed to the country’s Constitutional Court when that system was abolished. All this in order to defame the most moral army in the world, fresh from waging the most just war in history! Richard Goldstone is not the only Jew manipulated by the world-wide anti-Semitic conspiracy. Throughout the three weeks of the Gaza War, more than 10 thousand Israelis demonstrated against it again and again. They were photographed carrying signs saying “End the massacre in Gaza”, “Stop the war crimes”’ “Israel commits war crimes”, “Bombing civilians is a war crime”. They chanted in unison: “Olmert, Olmert, it is true – They’re waiting in The Hague for you!” Who would have believed that there are so many anti-Semites in Israel?! THE OFFICIAL Israeli reaction to the Goldstone report would have been amusing, if the matter had not been so grave. Except for the “usual suspects” (Gideon Levy, Amira Hass and their ilk), the condemnation of the report was unanimous, total and extreme, from Shimon Peres, that advocate of every abomination, down to the last scribbler in the newspapers. Nobody, but nobody, dealt with the subject itself. Nobody examined the detailed conclusions. With such an anti-Semitic smear, there is no need for that. Actually, there is no need to read the report at all. The public, in all its diversity, stood up like one person, in order to rebuff the plot, as it has learned to do in the thousand years of pogroms, Spanish inquisition and Holocaust. A siege mentality, the ghetto mentality. The instinctive reaction in such a situation is denial. It’s just not true. It never happened. It’s all a pack of lies. By itself, that is a natural reaction. When a human being is faced with a situation which he cannot handle, denial is the first refuge. If things did not happen, there is no need to cope. Basically, there is no difference between the deniers of the Armenian genocide, the deniers of the annihilation of the Native Americans and the deniers of the atrocities of all wars. From this point of view, it can be said that denial is almost “normal”. But with us it has been developed into an art form. WE HAVE a special method: when something happens that we don’t want to confront, we direct the spotlight to one specific detail, something completely marginal, and begin to insist on it, debate it, examine it from all angles as if it were a matter of life and death. Take the Yom Kippur war. It broke out because for six years, beginning with the 1967 war, Israel had cruised like a Ship of Fools, intoxicated with victory songs, victory albums and the belief in the invincibility of the Israeli army. Golda Meir treated the Arab world with open contempt and rebuffed the peace overtures of Anwar Sadat. The result: more than 2000 young Israelis killed, and who knows how many Egyptians and Syrians. And what was furiously debated? The “Omission”. “Why were the reserves not called up in time? Why were the tanks not moved in advance?” Menachem Begin thundered in the Knesset, and about this, books and articles galore were written and a blue-ribbon judicial board of inquiry deliberated. The First Lebanon War was a political blunder and a military failure. It lasted 18 years, gave birth to Hizbullah and established it as a regional force. And what was discussed? Whether Ariel Sharon had deceived Begin and was responsible for his illness and eventual death. The Second Lebanon War was a disgrace from beginning to end, a superfluous war that caused massive destruction, wholesale slaughter and the flight of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians from their homes, without achieving an Israeli victory. And what was our debate about? For what was a commission of inquiry appointed? About the way the decision to start the war was taken. Was there an appropriate process of decision making? Was there orderly staff work? About the Gaza War, there was no debate at all, because everything was perfectly alright. A brilliant campaign. Marvelous political and military leadership. True, we did not convince the Gaza Strip population to overthrow their leaders; true, we did not succeed in freeing the captured soldier Gilad Shalit; true, the whole world condemned us – but we killed a lot of Arabs, destroyed their environment and taught them a lesson they will not forget. Now, a profound debate on the Goldstone report is going on. Not about its content, God forbid. What’s there to discus? But about the one point that is really important: was our government right in deciding to boycott the commission? Perhaps it would have been better to take part in the deliberations? Did our Foreign Office act as foolishly as it usually does? (Our Ministry of Defense, of course, never behaves foolishly.) Tens of thousands of words about this world-shaking question were poured out from the newspapers, the radio and TV, with every self-respecting commentator weighing in. SO WHY did the Israeli government boycott the commission? The real answer is quite simple: they knew full well that the commission, any commission, would have to reach the conclusions it did reach. In fact, the commission did not say anything new. Almost all the facts were already known: the bombing of civilian neighborhoods, the use of flechette rounds and white phosphorus against civilian targets, the bombing of mosques and schools, the blocking of rescue parties from reaching the wounded, the killing of fleeing civilians carrying white flags, the use of human shields, and more. The Israeli army did not allow journalists near the action, but the war was amply documented by the international media in all its details, the entire world saw it in real time on the TV screens. The testimonies are so many and so consistent, that any reasonable person can draw their own conclusions. If the officers and soldiers of the Israeli army had given testimony before the commission, it would perhaps have been impressed by their angle, too – the fear, the confusion, the lack of orientation – and the conclusions could have been somewhat less severe. But the main thrust would not have changed. After all, the whole operation was based on the assumption that it was possible to overthrow the Hamas government in Gaza by causing intolerable suffering to the civilian population. The damage to civilians was not “collateral”, whether avoidable or unavoidable, but a central feature of the operation itself. Moreover, the rules of engagement were designed to achieve “zero losses” to our forces – avoiding losses at any price. That was the conclusion our army – led by Gabi Ashkenazi – drew from the Second Lebanon War. The results speak for themselves: 200 dead Palestinians for every Israeli soldier killed by the other side – 1400:6. Every real investigation must inevitably lead to the same conclusions as those of the Goldstone commission. Therefore, there was no Israeli wish for a real inquiry. The “investigations” that did take place were a farce. The person responsible, the Military Advocate General, kippa-wearing brigadier Avichai Mendelblit, was in charge of this task. He was promoted this week to the rank of major general. The promotion and its timing speak a clear language. SO IT is clear that there is no chance of the Israeli government belatedly opening a real investigation, as demanded by Israeli peace activists. In order to be credible, such an investigation would have to have the status of a State Commission of Inquiry as defined by Israeli law, headed by a Supreme Court justice. It would have to conduct its investigations publicly, in full view of the Israeli and international media. It would have to invite the victims, Gaza inhabitants, to testify together with the soldiers who took part in the war. It would have to investigate in detail each of the accusations that appear in the Goldstone report. It would have to check out the orders issued and decisions made, from the Chief of Staff down to the squad level. It would have to study the briefings of Air Force pilots and drone operators. This list suffices to make it clear why such an investigation will not and cannot take place. Instead, the world-wide Israeli propaganda machine will continue to defame the Jewish judge and the people who appointed him. Not all the Israeli accusations against the UN are groundless. For example: why does the organization investigate the war crimes in Gaza (and in former Yugoslavia and Darfur, investigations in which Goldstone took part as chief prosecutor) and not the actions of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Russians in Chechnya? But the main argument of the Israeli government is that the UN is an anti-Semitic organization, and its Human Rights Commission is doubly anti-Semitic. ISRAEL’S RELATIONS with the UN are very complex. The state was founded on the basis of a UN resolution, and it is doubtful whether it would have come into being at precisely that time and those circumstance had there been no such resolution. Our Declaration of Independence is largely based on this resolution. A year later, Israel was accepted as a UN member in spite of the fact that it had not allowed the (then) 750 thousand Palestinian refugees to return. But this honeymoon soured quickly. David Ben-Gurion spoke with contempt about UM-Shmum (“Um” is the Hebrew for “UN”, the prefix “shm” signifies contempt). From then on to this very day, Israel has systematically violated almost every single UN resolution that concerned it, complaining that there was an “automatic majority” of Arab and communist countries stacked against it. This attitude was reinforced when, on the eve of the 1967 war, the UN troops in Sinai where precipitously withdrawn on the demand of Gamal Abd-al-Nasser. And, of course, by the UN resolution (later annulled) equating Zionism with racism. Now this argument is raising its head again. The UN, it is being said, is anti-Israeli, which means (of course) anti-Semitic. Everyone who acts in the name of the UN is an Israel-hater. To hell with the UN. To hell with the Goldstone report. That is, however, a woefully short-sighted policy. The general public throughout the world is hearing about the report and remembering the pictures they saw on their TV screens during the Gaza war. The UN enjoys much respect. In the wake of the “Molten Lead” operation, Israel’s standing in the world has been steadily going down, and this report will send it down even further. This will have practical consequences – political, military, economic and cultural. Only a fool – or an Avigdor Lieberman – can ignore that. If there is no credible Israeli investigation, there will be demands for the UN Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Barack Obama would have to decide whether to veto such a resolution – a move that would cause grave harm to the US, and for which he would demand a high price from Israel. As has been said before: UM-Shmum may turn into UM-Boom.
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In the searing heat of the desert near the Saudi border, the sound of heavy artillery echoes across the mountains every few minutes, hammering the ears of Askar Ragass and her terrified family.
Mortar attacks and aerial bombardment are now familiar sounds to the simple farmers and herders fleeing the war between the Yemeni army and Houthi Shia rebels that broke out last month in the country's mountainous north.
"We're so scared," Askar, a farmer, tells Al Jazeera from her tent in al-Mazraq camp where she and 500 other displaced families have been living after fleeing their villages.
"Whenever we hear a sound we run into our tents. We remember what happened back home. The sound of bombing never leaves your mind. When you hear a plane you just freeze and can't move - you think it's about to fire on you."
Families here could be forgiven for feeling unsafe. On September 16, over 80 people were killed during an air raid on a settlement for displaced civilians in Amran province a few hundred kilometres away.
The army launched the "Operation Scorched Earth" offensive against Shia rebels fighting for greater autonomy in Yemen's northernmost Saada province.
But it has proven to be a conflict impoverished Yemen can ill afford, and it has hit the people of this agricultural region hard.
Nearly 10 per cent of the children arriving at the al-Mazraq camp are severely malnourished and have to be sent to a local hospital for immediate therapeutic feeding to prevent permanent damage to their small bodies and minds.
Nevertheless, these refugees count themselves among the lucky.
Of the estimated 150,000 displaced civilians in northern Yemen, they are the only ones with immediate access to clean drinking water, food, medical attention and most importantly, security.
Tens of thousands more who fled their homes are now trapped by the fighting, living under bridges and trees with little or no access to aid.
The Yemeni aid group al-Amal is one of the only organisations with workers on the ground inside the war zone.
"We are on the verge of a major human catastrophe" says Tayyib Izzedeen, the deputy director of al-Amal.
"Inside Saada City there is nothing to eat, there is no electricity, no water, no medicine and if you can find anything, its price has tripled."
Izzedeen says the situation is even more critical in Baqim, 20km from the Saudi border, where up to 30,000 civilians, the vast majority of them women and children, are stranded in the open without food or water and caught in the crossfire.
"They are surrounded by fighting between tribes and the Houthis, and by bombing from government fighter jets," says Izzedeen.
"They have nothing to eat, no medicine, no security, no shelter - anything one needs to survive, they don't have."
UN agencies blocked on the Yemeni-Saudi border have been unable to provide assistance and have watched the suffering of innocent civilians just a few kilometres away.
"There are no humanitarian corridors whatsoever," says Laure Chedrawi of the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR).
"In fact humanitarian access is tightening by the day. We continue to call on the Yemeni and Saudi governments to allow us to aid the people of Baqim camp."
And the Saudi government prevents any cross border movement of aid workers or families, fearing Houthi rebels could masquerade as refugees to enter the kingdom.Meanwhile, the lack of organised, clearly demarcated civilian camps inside the war zone is adding to the confusion and haze of war - with tragic consequences.
"The large number of people recently killed in Amran province sends a very disturbing message to the displaced civilians," says Naseem Ur-Rehman of Unicef.
"The government says there were no internally displaced people [IDPs] there, but the reality is the IDPs are spread over vast stretches of land. Now they are confused about where they should go."
Hassan Ahmed Naba'ee and his family were among the few able to find a way out of the war zone and to reach al-Mazraq camp.
"A mortar and artillery attack started on us at night," Naba'ee tells al Jazeera, beads of sweat running down his face in the suffocating heat of the family tent.
"There was an attack on state targets - then the government struck back. They bombed randomly on our villages and homes. We couldn't possibly stay - we just left our houses and fled."
Naba'ee's newborn twins Abdullah and Noura wail inconsolably as family members take turns fanning them with bits of cardboard.
No one knows how long they will be in this camp.
The war, which has raged intermittently since 2004, seems unending and is now spreading.
Now far beyond the borders of northern Saada province, it has enveloped parts of neighbouring Amran, Jowf and Hajja provinces, threatening to destabilise the country and cause famine in the north.
And if the situation at al-Mazraq camp indicates conditions for northern civilians at their best, then there is much to worry about.
"Al-Mazraq is secure," warns Izzedeen of al-Amal. "That is why you see aid organisations working there providing assistance.
"But in all other areas of northern Yemen we face an impending humanitarian disaster."
Circled in red in the map of the 
Photo at right shows Kasbek Mount through the pass of Dariel, or pass of Kasbek. Here in the Caucasus the Khazars met resistance in their expansion south against Byzantium, Persia and the Baghdad Caliphate. Known then as the "Kingdom of the North," the Khazars are today's Ashkenazi Jewry, or Gog.
