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I am a Holocaust survivor, therefore I cannot help but regard all events that affect my country, Israel, from the point of view of a Holocaust survivor. Many of us after our liberation came here to fight in the War of Independence and help reestablish the state of Israel. Those of us who survived the wars established families, brought children and grandchildren to the world, and today our grandchildren, in whose hands we leave the safety of this country and the safety of each individual, may be accused by you of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Our grandchildren - who bodily stand between us and the Hamas terrorists of Gaza and hundreds of millions of Islamic fanatics who openly declare to the whole world that they will and must destroy us - are being accused by you, Mr. Goldstone, of crimes against humanity. And what were their war crimes? And how else were they going to ferret out each Hamas terrorist hiding behind the women and children? These are the same terrorists who were shooting off rockets into Israel for eight bloody years. And why did Israel wait eight years to start with, while every country in the world would have sent in their armies after the first rockets hit their towns? We waited because we knew that if we went into Gaza trying to ferret out the attackers, a Mr. Goldstone would appear with his lofty, sickeningly biased morality and declare our grandchildren war criminals. We finally had to send them in because larger and larger rockets were arriving from Iran, and a million Israelis were threatened by these rockets. That was not only unacceptable, but also intolerable. What would you have us do, Mr. Goldstone? How were we going to defend our towns against these attacks? If, by your definition, our grandchildren are war criminals, then what are the Americans, the British and all the NATO forces who mercilessly bombarded Afghanistan, killing thousands of civilians, the Americans and British in Iraq, the Russians who did the same in Chechnya? I would agree to be called a war criminal if we simply sent in our planes and bombarded Gaza into the Stone Age, like the Americans did in Afghanistan. But we did not do it, Mr. Goldstone. Instead we sent in our grandchildren to be killed by the Hamas terrorists in order to avoid reducing Gaza to rubble. And for this our grandchildren are war criminals? I was in Dachau, Mr. Goldstone, when five hundred American planes flew over our heads almost daily and dropped thousands of bombs on Munich's civilian population, reducing the town to rubble and killing thousands of civilians. At the end of the war, the British dropped thousands of incendiary bombs on Dresden killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. The war was over, still they did it. Perhaps you should call all those soldiers war criminals before you so blatantly accuse us. I know it is much easier to accuse the Jews than the Americans, or the British or the Russians, although by your definition they are the real war criminals. No, Mr. Goldstone, war is not a nice thing, but if we want to stay alive, then we Jews have learned by experience that unless we defend ourselves, no one else will defend us. What we really find despicable is that you, as a Jew, agreed to participate in a committee that a priori condemned us. Your feeble excuse is that the United Nations only gave you a mandate to investigate the Gaza War. Condemning Israel is as if you would condemn the British and the French for starting World War II. After all, it was France and Britain who declared war on Germany. It is the same as ignoring the fact that the Germans attacked Poland first. As far as I am concerned, as a survivor, you, Mr. Goldstone, are carrying out a "selection" (like in the "good old days"), singling out Israel, a small country trying to survive the constant onslaught of millions of Arabs. You picked us as a convenient target when, by your definition of war crimes, your true target should have been America, Russia, NATO forces who sent in heavy bombers to drop thousands of bombs on civilian targets in Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya, Belgrade and hundreds of other places around the world. If we should follow your dictate, then the world has no right to defend itself against terrorism; if we do, we are to be classified as war criminals. Mr. Goldstone, it was from Gaza that the rockets came bombarding Israeli towns for eight years, and it is a fact that the Palestinians voted Hamas into power. They started the war. Those who start a war should be blamed before those who defend themselves are blamed. You chose to ignore that fact. All I can add is that as a judge, you are bigoted like the rest of the UN institutions; and as a Jew - shame on you.
Gerardo Joffe, President
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