2010 Convention Resolution: Supporting Operation Cast Lead and Opposing the Goldstone Report

Whereas from the time of her inception, the State of Israel has faced incessant threats to her very existence from nations along her borders; and

Whereas we now live in a new era of Mideast War, which has compelled Israel to engage in confrontation with rogue pseudo-governments rather than to defend against established nations; and

Whereas for Israel to defend herself from incessant rocket barrages, as those that rained down incessantly on Sderot, for years, from the time that Israel ceded Gaza sovereignty to the Palestinian Authority, it becomes inevitable that she will find herself challenged by the moral dilemma that increasingly has plagued our own country, the United States, in our own battles for freedom and democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan: how to remove the terrorists and their murderous weapons from civilian centers without harming surrounding civilians. It often is impossible to avoid all loss of civilian life in such circumstances of fighting for a nation’s existential survival; and

Whereas we note with pride that America and Israel each has grappled with the military challenge of this new age of warfare with honor and the highest codes of morality.

Therefore, the Rabbinical Council of America resolves that we stand proudly with Israel, in the face of the United Nations “Goldstone Report,” a biased document unduly critical of a humane people and a moral nation. We know that survival cannot be compromised. And we proudly identify, as Americans and as Jews, with the two most moral nations on earth, the United States and the State of Israel.