To read this article, click here.

[Excerpt:]

The Israeli watchdog group NGO Monitor said, however, that HRW possessed “neither the military expertise nor the appropriate fact-finding methodology” to make its assessments and conduct proper investigations. “Such judgments require knowledge of the military intelligence possessed by Israeli commanders at the time of the strikes, and information on intent of the officers. In contrast, HRW’s ‘evidence’ consists solely of its inability to identify ‘indication[s] of a legitimate military target at the site at the time of the attack’ and Israel’s refusal to explain its operational decisions to the NGO.

NGO Monitor also noted that HRW’s latest press release was “its seventh document relating to the November 2012 fighting in Gaza and Southern Israel. The disproportionate obsession and political agenda are further seen by HRW’s decision to conduct ‘field investigations’ on that particular conflict, at a time when the UN estimated that over 10,000 people were killed in the Syrian civil war in the month of January 2013 alone.”

It also criticized HRW for failing to wait for a response from the IDF. Said NGO Monitor, “The real reason HRW does not want to wait for the IDF report is because it will demonstrate that HRW’s claims are baseless, as happened with Israeli responses to the 2009 Gaza conflict and the 2006 Lebanon War.”