UN Gaza report becomes political football

The report said both Israel and the authorities in Gaza should be required to conduct investigations and prosecutions and report to the Security Council within six months.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately seized the opportunity to deflect attention away from the growing pressure on Israel to stop settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Assailing the findings as biased and anti-Israel, he declared that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would not resume unless the report was shelved.

The Obama administration, anxious not to derail its push for peace negotiations, tried to get the Palestinians not to press for wider UN action on the report, but this effort backfired. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas first acceded to the U.S., but after a firestorm of protest from Palestinians, he switched and pushed for UN action. The UN General Assembly was scheduled to take up the issue today.