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Israel mounted a diplomatic offensive on Wednesday, trying to contain damage from a damning UN report that accused it and Palestinian militants of war crimes during the Gaza war. 

“We are going to deploy great diplomatic and political efforts on the international stage to block and contain the perverse and noxious effects of the Goldstone Commission report,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.  “We fear this will be a hit to our image,” he said. “But the recommendations of this report are so extreme that there is little chance that they will be followed up on.”  The Israeli leadership fears one recommendation in particular, according to local media – that the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) submits the report to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which could lead to charges being brought against senior Israeli officials involved in the war.  “The goal is to avoid a slippery slope which would lead Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” the left-leaning Haaretz daily quoted a senior official as saying.  Reacting to the report, the Hamas rulers of Gaza called for Israeli leaders to be put on trial as war criminals.  The UN probe said both Israel and Palestinian groups committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the 22-day war in December-January that Israel launched in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.  >>>