TEL AVIV - US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice called on Wednesday for an end to "anti-Israel vitriol" at the United Nations, where the General Assembly is expected to debate a Gaza war crimes report.
"Member states must once and for all replace anti-Israeli vitriol with recognition of Israel's legitimacy and right to exist in peace and security," she said at a conference in occupied Jerusalem organised by President Shimon Peres.
"We will stand by our friends on the frontlines and we will uphold the inalienable right to self-defence," she said.
She made no direct mention of the Goldstone report on the Gaza war which concluded that both Israel and Hamas, committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
But hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the US position on the report during an hour-long meeting with Rice, his office said.
"The prime minister thanked Rice for the Obama administration's vigorous opposition to the Goldstone report and its ongoing support (of Israel) at the United Nations," the statement said.
It said Rice reiterated Washington's commitment to Israel's security.
Rice earlier met Defence Minister Ehud Barak and extremist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
On Tuesday, she held talks with Peres during which the two addressed the question of the Goldstone report, officials said.
The UN General Assembly is expected to discuss the report by the South African former international war crimes prosecutor by the end of the year after it was endorsed by the Human Rights Council.
Some 1,400 Palestinians (mainly civilians and a third of them were children) and 13 Israelis were killed in the 22-day Gaza conflict that Israel launched on December 27.
Goldstone recommended referring the report's conclusions to the International Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague, if Israel and Hamas fail to conduct credible investigations within six months.
Israel called the endorsement by the UN Human Rights Council a "diplomatic farce" and threatened to halt the Middle East peace efforts.
But the Palestinians welcomed the resolution which they said should result in follow-up action by the UN Security Council.
Goldstone himself rejected the Israeli argument.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces conducted air strikes against a building and two tunnels in the Gaza, a military spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Israel, which wants to crush any Palestinian liberation movement, responded to Hamas's win in the elections with sanctions, and almost completely blockaded the impoverished coastal strip after Hamas seized power in 2007, although a ‘lighter’ siege had already existed before.
Human rights groups, both international and Israeli, slammed Israel’s siege of Gaza, branding it “collective punishment.”
A group of international lawyers and human rights activists had also accused Israel of committing “genocide” through its crippling blockade of the Strip.
Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the Strip.
The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza's sole border crossing that bypasses Israel, rarely opens as Egypt is under immense US and Israeli pressure to keep the crossing shut.
Fatah has little administrative say in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and has no power in Arab east Jerusalem, both of which were illegally occupied by Israel in 1967.
Israel also currently occupies the Lebanese Shabaa Farms and the Syrian Golan Heights.
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