A sheep among seventy wolves: Wednesday afternoon, the General Assembly of the UN held a discussion about the Goldstone Report. In his report, Goldstone, a Jewish judge, accused Israel of committing war crimes during the "Cast Lead" operation.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian Observer to the UN, blames Israel for "committing crimes against humanity" as determined by international law, and urged the UN to hold Israel "criminally liable". Mansour said that the current UN session cannot turn out to be just another session with no follow-through, and in defense of the Palestinian actions during "Cast Lead", he said, "once cannot compare between the occupying force and the Palestinians living under occupation."

The first speech made in this anti-Semetic forum was by the Egyptian ambassador, Majad Abdel Aziz. At the beginning of his speech, the Egyptian ambassador said that "Israel is taking revenge on the citizens of Gaza." A total of 40 representatives will have the opportunity to speak today and tomorrow. The resulting decision, which will become apparent after a vote is taken, is easy to predict.

In his speech, the Egyptian ambassador claimed to be speaking in the name of 118 out of 192 countries that are members of the United Nations. He said that the majority of the nations in the UN are in favor of Israel conducting "an inquest which complies with international standards for the investigation of international humanitarian law." 

If such a Resolution is passed, the Secretary-General of the United Nations expects the results of the internal inquiries to be submitted to him within 3 months. A petition to conduct a simultaneous Palestinian inquiry was also submitted.

The bloc of Arab nations will probably succeed in convincing the United Nations to accept the report and submit it to the Security Council – a body with legal authority, that can decide in turn to submit the report to the International Court of Human Rights at the Hague.

Israeli officials in Jerusalem hope that the discussion will end with a report. Danny Ayalon, Deputy Minister of Finance, said that Israel and the United States have a quiet understanding. Ayalon is confident that America will not permit the Security Council to do anything rash. And if the report is brought to the Security Council, America will exercise its right to veto.

If a vote is taken, Israel will surely lose out, despite intensive efforts by the State Department to set up a "moral bloc", which will oppose the decision. It seems that while dozens of countries understand that accepting the Goldstone Report is dangerous, as it will hamper the war on terror, that group of UN representatives is not big enough to sway the results of the imminent vote.