Debating Goldstone in the House

Final update: The final vote on the anti-Goldstone resolution was 344-36, with 22 people voting "present." The resolution passed.

Just so everyone's clear, this is a non-binding resolution. It urges the president and the secretary of state to keep condemning the report and to block it from reaching the Security Council, the International Criminal Court, and other world bodies. It's a symbolic victory for Israel, but it has no binding legal authority.

We'll post a link to the roll call later tonight so you can see who voted yes or no. Our live-blogging of the debate follows after the jump.

Original post: The U.S. House of Representatives is debating a resolution, HR 867, condemning the Goldstone Report. I've caught bits and pieces of the debate -- been working on other things, sorry -- and it has been more balanced than I thought it would be.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House majority leader, just encouraged everyone to support the resolution. So did Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a cosponsor of the measure, who called the Goldstone Report "irredeemably biased" and said the report would set a precedent for putting U.S. soldiers on trial.

She also said the report will "send a message... to those who support Israel's and America's destruction."

Kudos to Rep. Betsy McCollum, D-Minn., and Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., the first two people I've heard stand up to defend Goldstone. Edwards just criticized the House for voting on this resolution without inviting Goldstone to come testify. And here's an excerpt of what McCollum said:

American-made white phosphorus shells were used by Israel in civilian areas... causing horrible burns to Palestinian civilians. Yet this resolution refuses to seek the truth.

This report [Goldstone] was led by a former chief prosecutor who has led far tougher investigations than critics in this chamber, critics who have not heard a single hearing. There is only a single standard for human rights, a standard by which we must hold ourselves and our friends and allies accountable.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., one of the resolution's sponsors, just stood up -- presumably -- to defend it.

Update: Several other representatives, including Rep. David Price, D-N.C., and Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., have made the important point that supporting Israel and investigating Israeli war crimes are not mutually exclusive goals.

Much credit is due to the representatives who stood up to criticize this resolution. I know, I know, this is just a debate in Washington -- Kabuki theater. But this is a loaded issue in D.C., and in the warped terms of our public discourse, trying to hold Israel to account for possible war crimes is considered "anti-Israel." There's a big political risk in defending this report.

Update 2: Rep. Ros-Lehtinen just objected to entering the Goldstone Report itself into the congressional record. Unbelievable.

Update 3: Berman is speaking again. He compares Goldstone to the U.S. judges who approved the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II:

There have been glowing tributes, and I'm sure they're deserved, to the record, the resume, the reputation of Justice Goldstone. Several of my favorite Supreme Court justices voted in a decision... to pick up Japanese-Americans who resided in different parts of the United States and put them into detention camps... they're still my favorite justices, but they made a mistake. A wonderful jurist can issue a flawed report.

He's also describing the U.N. Human Rights Council as "obsessed" with Israel, pointing out that it has issued far more resolutions on Israel than on any other country.

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