Israel's convictions: Its human rights record shows its critics for the hypocrites they are 

Editorials 
October 6th 2010
NY Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/10/06/2010-10-06_israels_convictions.html#ixzz11ZpsWpyf

One of the seemingly infinite libels leveled against Israel in the infamous Goldstone Report was that the Jewish state would cover up misdeeds committed by its military in the 2008-09 offensive into Gaza.

Commissioned without pretense of objectivity by the United Nations Human Rights Council, the report grossly found Israel guilty of war crimes and stated:
The mission finds that the system put in place by Israel ... to deal with serious allegations of wrongdoing by armed forces personnel ... is not effective in addressing the violations and uncovering the truth.

Which was as false as a lie can be.

On Sunday, an Israeli military court found two soldiers guilty of having used a Palestinian boy as a human shield. By forcing the boy to inspect bags for bombs, the court found, the soldiers were exceeding their authority to the point of endangering life.

This, of course, will be of no moment to a council convinced from the get-go that Israel's exercise in self-defense was one big, sweeping war crime - never mind that the operation was aimed only at stopping the thousands of missiles that had been rained down upon Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists.

Clearly, though, the case documents Israel's readiness to act through an independent judiciary against individual examples of wartime atrocities.

Now, how many of Israel's neighbors can lay claim to a government anywhere near as open to such soul-searching and self-castigation?

The answer is easy.

None.