Muhammad Abu Askar, a longtime member of Hamas’ Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, appeared before the Goldstone Panel arguing that his house had been “unjustly” blown up by Israel. No one bothered to ask him whether Hamas munitions were being stored in his house.
The IDF reported that Abu Askar’s house served as a storage facility for large stockpiles of weapons and ammunition, including Iranian-supplied Grad rockets that had been used against Israeli cities like Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Beersheba. The Izz al-Din al-Qassam website disclosed that Khaled Abu Askar, Muhammad’s son, provided Hamas operatives with rockets and military equipment.
The Abu Askar case is one of many incidents where the Goldstone team refused to consider that Hamas was exploiting civilian areas to gain military advantage.
Israel gave advanced warning to Hamas members before attacks and avoided civilian casualties. Judge Richard Goldstone and Amb. Dore Gold discussed the UN report on Gaza war crimes at Brandeis University on Nov. 5, 2009.
See Amb. Gold’s new article discussing the Goldstone Report published in U.S. News:
http://politics.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2010/03/24/th…