Officer claims Goldstone report will not restrict IDF in future war

A senior officer in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has claimed that the UN’s Goldstone Report on Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip two years ago is unlikely to affect the army’s tactics in future wars. The officer in the Northern Command – speaking anonymously as is the norm – said, “It would be a serious mistake to believe that Israel will not respond because of the Goldstone report if, for example, the Lebanese border flares-up.” Comments made by Judge Richard Goldstone about Operation Cast Lead would not, the officer boasted, restrict the army in the next round of hostilities.

Indeed, in his statement on Radio Israel, the officer threatened an even more aggressive war in future, even though the UN Report accused the Israelis of committing “war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity” during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. “What the Israeli army will do on the Lebanese front will not be the same as what happened in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “Hezbollah has developed an advanced missile capability within Lebanese civilian villages in order to kill civilians in Israel.”