Richard Maize Creates Websites To Refute Goldstone Report

Sept. 21, 2009 - PRLog -- The Richard Maize Foundation has taken to the defense of Israel and human rights by creating numerous information Websites to address the biased UN Goldstone Report on the Israel Gaza war.

"When the UN Goldstone Report was released anyone could see that it was highly biased, one sided, a pure example of discrimination against Israel," said Richard Maize.

"There was not one word in that UN report that alluded to the fact that Israel was forced to defend herself against 8,000 missile attacks from Gaza. Only the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and HonestReporting.com had limited and coordinated efforts using the Web. So we created a handful of extremely powerful Web 2.0 PR news sites which were SEO optimized for the search engines that addressed both the UN Goldstone Report and Human Rights in Israel," said Richard Maize.

Two of the pro Israel Websites are Israel Human Rights and the UN Goldstone Report, both of which have been highlighted on Facebook, MySpace, DIGG, Twitter, Google and Yahoo groups, Blogger and dozens of other new media social networking Websites.

The Richard Maize sponsored sites made sure to address several facts including that Israel did not deliberately target the civilian population of Gaza and, in fact, made every effort to prevent civilian casualties that no other army in the world would have done. That contrary to the assertions of the UN Goldstone Report, Hamas did use Palestinian civilians as human shields and the world public can view Hamas admitting as such on YouTube. The Goldstone Report is not objective and is, in fact tainted by bias and politicization, both from the UN Human Rights Council and members of the mission itself. That the UN Gaza report relied upon the contributions of anti-Israel non-governmental organizations and unreliable Palestinian "eyewitnesses."

The Richard Maize Foundation sites enhanced the PR and public affairs effort made by Israel to illustrate that Israel respects human rights and has a sophisticated legal and judicial system. Hamas does not. Yet the UN Goldstone Israel Gaza Report has created an unjust equivalence of a democratic state with a terror organization.

The Rochelle and Richard Maize Foundation is a philanthropic organization that supports and contributes volunteer and financial resources to causes locally in the community and worldwide by supporting programs focusing on art, culture, family services, health care and human rights.

Richard Maize has supported organizations and causes including the American Cancer Society, Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services, Hurricane Katrina, Los Angeles Police Foundation, the 18th Israel Maccabiah Games and Cedars Sinai Board of Governors.

Israel President Shimon Peres responded to the UN Goldstone Israel Gaza Report saying that it "makes a mockery of history" and that "it does not distinguish between the aggressor and the defender."

"War is a crime and the attacker is the criminal. The defender has no choice. The Hamas terror organization is the one who started the war and also carried out other awful crimes. Hamas has used terrorism for years against Israel children," Peres stated.

Peres did not hold back his anger when he received a delegation of the British Labor Friends of Israel in Jerusalem yesterday. "We are outraged by the criticism of British universities," said Peres. "What do they want us to do, allow our children to be murdered? Who are the criminals of war - the aggressors or the defenders?"

Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu joined Peres in condemning the racist 574-page UN investigation of conduct during the Israel Hamas war in Gaza last January.

"The Goldstone Report is a field court-marital, and its findings were prewritten," said Netanyahu."This is a prize for terror. The report makes it difficult for democracies to fight terror."

By making this statement, Judge Richard Goldstone equated a terror group - Hamas with the only democracy in the Middle-East. And in doing so failed to mention that Hamas had attacked Israel cities and towns with Qassam rockets fired from civilian homes, schools and UN facilities. That during the actual engagement between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas, Hamas fired automatic weapons hiding behind Palestinian children. At several points Hamas literally dragged these children with them as they moved from point to point.

Goldstone completely ignored the facts that murdering Israel civilians is one of Hamas' central goals. That it was Hamas that organized suicide attacks and sent its terrorists to blow themselves up on Israel buses in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in hotel lobbies in Netanya and at restaurants in Jerusalem. That Hamas has clearly stated that it remains committed in word and deed to the total destruction of Israel.

"The Goldstone Commission is a commission established with the aim of finding Israel guilty of crimes ahead of time, the commission was dispatched by countries in which the terms 'human rights' and 'combat ethics' are unknown," said Israel Foreign Minister Lieberman.

Former UN Human Rights director Mary Robinson, as well as former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, were among the many international personalities that refused UN offers to head the Gaza mission. "Unfortunately, the Human Rights Council passed a resolution seeking a fact-finding mission to only look at what Israel had done, and I don’t think that’s a human rights approach," said Robinson. "The UN Goldstone Report was guided not by human rights but by politics".

"We have very serious concerns about many recommendations in the report," said US Ambassador Susan Rice who serves as the permanent US representative to the UN. "We will expect and believe that the appropriate venue for this report to be considered is the Human Rights Council," Rice said yesterday, in the first official American response to Goldstone's report. "We have long expressed our very serious concern with the mandate that was given by the Human Rights Council prior to our joining the council, which we viewed as unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable."

British trade labor unions yesterday agreed to support a boycott of Israel products in response to the offensive in Gaza last winter. The boycott, proposed by the Fire Brigades Union, calls for a ban on importing goods produced in some Israel settlements, an end of arms trading with Israel and disinvestment from some companies.

In reaction to the approval of an anti - Israel boycott by the UK trades union, MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) called for a boycott of British goods by Israel consumers. "I call on the public to build a Jewish wall, to counter a boycott with a boycott, and not to purchase goods from Britain," said Ben-Ari.

Noam Shalit joined hundreds of Israel diplomats and journalists questioning the findings of the UN Goldstone Commission. The UN Goldstone Report refers to Gilad Shalit as a “prisoner of war” and not as a “captive” or “hostage”. Noam Shalit pointed out that even if his son Gilad is a prisoner of war, one can only question why he is not granted the minimum rights given to POWs, visits from humanitarian agencies and other basic human rights including receiving visits from medical professionals and family members.

"As long as Judge Richard Goldstone doesn't probe human rights abuses in Darfur, Iran, Russia, Syria, Lebanon, China, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka or Turkey, just as he probed Israel, he is not a moral figure. A law is a law only when it applies to everyone and does not discriminate, as Goldstone did, says Richard Maize.

Richard Maize concludes: "We trust that the objective and well documented information Websites that we have created in response to the UN Goldstone Report will serve both political leaders and members of the media who are reporting on a fact finding mission which sounds more like something out of Disneyland than a respected legal or ethical organization."