Andres Oppenheimer
First of all, there is little question that
The Israeli government knew very well that, far from a well-meaning convoy of peaceniks carrying humanitarian aid, the so-called Freedom Flotilla had been sponsored by the
It was crystal clear that the flotilla's activists wanted to provoke an international incident that would expose
And while
Many newspaper headlines in
Palestinian leaders countered that when you have Israeli troops intercepting ships carrying unarmed civilians and all of the dead are on one side, it's pretty clear who used excessive force.
Meantime, the 47-member
All
One doesn't have to be a genius to guess the outcome of the Council's "investigation." According to the Freedom House advocacy group's map of freedom in the world, 60 percent of the Council's members are dictatorships, or only "partly-free."
The Council has also failed to investigate human rights abuses in
Of the 40 resolutions issued by the Council over the past four years, 33 have been condemnations of
Last year, the
My opinion: While I agree with
But putting such an investigation in the hands of the
Available at Amazon.com:
At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes
- Don't Lift the International Ban on Whaling
- Why No Outrage for Anti-Israel, Phony Flotilla?
- U.N. Probe of Israeli Raid Is a Joke
- When Doing What You Need to Do Goes Badly
- The Convenient Villain
- An Act of Piracy on the High Seas
- History Returns to Europe
- Colombia Vote Showed Social Media's Limits
- Political Tremors in Tokyo
- Managing a More Assertive Turkey
- Obama's New Security Strategy Looks Much Like the Old One
- Sticking to the Iraq Withdrawal Timetable
- Israel Is a Key Ally and Deserves U.S. Support
- Israel: Re-Run
- Korean Tensions: Waiting for China
- Our Chief Confessor
- New Political Winds in Latin America
- Colombia: Moving Beyond 'Narco-Democracy'
- Is Colombia's Front-runner Too Romantic? Not Really
- Mexico has its own 'Arizona' problem
- What Next for NATO?
- European Union Funding Proposal Is Only the Beginning
- Afghanistan - Marinestan
- Farideh Farhi on Shifts in Iran on Nuclear Policy
- Brazil Diplomacy Needed Closer to Home
- Do Great Leaders Make History or Are They Carried Along by the Tides of Change
- France Offers Lesson in How Not to Integrate Immigrants
- Euro Crisis has American Fingerprints
- European Debt Crisis Affects Investments
- Greece: Model of Socialistic Excess
- Hugo Chavez Ceding too Much Control to Cuba
- Afghanistan: Papering Over Afghan Woes
- Expeditionary Economics: Spurring Growth After Conflicts and Disasters
- Why More Diplomacy Won't Keep the Financial System Safe
- Bigger Is Better: Case for Transatlantic Economic Union
- European Union: A Fragile Partnership
- The Brussels Wall: Tearing Down the EU-NATO Barrier
- Muddling through Greece's Tremors
- Greece Financial Crisis Raises Doubts About European Union
- Greek Debt Crisis May Hurt Latin America Economy
- The U.S. Mission in Iraq
- Shared Goals for Pakistan's Militants
- Bringing Change From Below in Afghanistan
- The Global Glass Ceiling: Why Empowering Women Is Good for Business
- The Future of American Security Assistance
- Questioning the Wisdom of American Restraint
- Enforcing Human Rights for World's Poor
- The Geography of Chinese Power
- The Rise of Asia's Universities
- On Israel: Obama Playing the Middle East Game Wrong
- What's Happening With Israel?
- Exaggeration of Iranian Threat Could Have Dire Consequences
- Obama's Nuclear Policy Enhances America's Moral Position and Security
- New Obama Nuclear Policy Could Spur Proliferation and Harm America
- U.S. and Russia Should Share Anti-Iran Missile Defense
- Obama's Promise to Work With Foreign Governments
- The NATO Nuisance
- Cuban Cardinal Says Too Little Too Late
- The Starving Armenians
- Arizona's Anti-Immigrant Law Will Spark Hispanic Exodus
- Open Season on Latinos in Arizona
- Obama Criticism of Arizona Immigration Law Ignores Federal Incompetence
- Change for U.S. Nuclear Strategy: Nuclear War Planning and Non-proliferation
- Obama's Nuclear-Weapons Conference Fatally Flawed Before It Began
- Fear Factor: Swine Flu, Nuclear Weapons, Reacting to Doom
- Documents Reveal Al Qaeda Cyberattacks
- Iraq Elections - So What Happened to Iraq?
- Mexico's Big Hope: Get 5 Million U.S. Retirees
- U.S. Latin Policy: Big Gestures and Little Substance
- United States - 5 Ways to Keep America Great
- Iran - Sanctions on Iran
- Securing Afghanistan - Pakistan Connection
- Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai Ungrateful Puppet
- As Iraq Threatens to Come Apart Problems in Afghanistan Mount
- Latin America Must Diversify Trade With China
- Cuba After Fidel and Raul Castro
- China Should Be Ashamed of Its Aid to Haiti
- Pivot to Foreign Policy: American-Russian Cooperation
- Nuclear Roulette: The Obama Doctrine
- Al-Qaeda has Lost the Battle. But has it Won the War?
- Why Natural Disasters Are More Expensive But Less Deadly
- Dangerous Bias of United Nations Goldstone Report
- Greek Financial Debt Crisis Only Part of EU's Woes
- Remember the Pacific War
- Strange Sighting in Iraq
- Mexico Facing Six Wars Not Just One
- Mexican Violence Rising but Less Than in Washington
- Pakistan's Shrewd Shift in Dialogue
- Earthquake May Delay Chile's First World Goal
- Trees for Haiti Campaign Starts -- Slowly
- Haiti: Reforestation Should Be Part of Rebuilding Process
- Pentagon Wrestles With Haiti Relief
- Chile's Sebastian Pinera Unlikely to Be South American Silvio Berlusconi
- Earthquake Buries Progress in Haiti
- Beyond Haitian Relief Effort, How to Fix Haiti
- Haiti Needs a Version of the Marshall Plan
- Tough Love Only Long-Term Cure for Haiti
(C) 2010 Andres Oppenheimer