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...opportunity for a grand gesture may be developing in the most unlikely of locales: the Middle East. Obama has sent a special envoy, George Mitchell, to launch negotiations, but the Mitchell process has moved slowly and seems to be slouching toward catatonia. The Israelis have refused to freeze their illegal West Bank settlement-building; the Arabs have refused to make any gestures toward recognizing Israel's sovereignty until such a freeze is imposed. Deadlock. At the same time, though, there is the rarest of Middle East commodities - some actual, tangible good news - beginning to bubble up on the West Bank...
...biased and, in the words of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, "twisted, fraudulent and tendentious." At a Security Council meeting of the issue on Wednesday, Israeli ambassador Gabriela Shalev said the report "favors and legitimizes terrorism" and that even discussing it distracted from more pressing issues, like the peace process...
...already weak government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, after he initially heeded pressure from the U.S. to squelch U.N. discussion of the report. The Obama Administration was mindful of Israel's concerns and reluctant to allow the Goldstone probe to distract from its efforts to restart the peace process. Under a firestorm of criticism, not least from within his own Fatah party, Abbas reversed himself and pressed for U.N. discussion of Goldstone. (See pictures of the 2009 conflict in Gaza...
...That discussion will begin in earnest on Thursday, when the Human Rights Council meets in Geneva to consider whether to bury the report in the international body's labyrinthine archives, as Israel would prefer, or forward it for action by the Security Council. The latter course would trigger a process in which Israel and Hamas are both given six months to carry out their own independent investigations into the charges raised by the Goldstone report. If they fail to do so, the issue could be referred for prosecution by the International Criminal Court in the Hague, which could result...
...White House had been swayed by Israel's position that taking the Goldstone report forward could pose an obstacle to reviving the peace process. Netanyahu, who assured the Knesset that no Israeli soldiers would ever be prosecuted for war crimes, anywhere, told U.S. officials that with the Goldstone report looming over him, it will be nearly impossible to sell his right-wing government on the idea of making concessions to the Palestinians...