Can Richard Goldstone's tarnished reputation be rehabilitated without him acknowledging that the evidence, including new information, proves he was wrong? There is a politically motivated effort underway to rehabilitate the tarnished reputation of Richard Goldstone. His reputation suffered not only from his association with the discredited Goldstone report regarding the war in Gaza, but also from recent revelations of the ignoble role he played as a hanging and torturing judge, while serving the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
For strident enemies of Israel, such as the hard left Nation magazine, Goldstone was a hero. They couldn't care less that the "findings" of the Goldstone report were contradicted by the physical evidence, including video and audiotapes. They ignored the fact that a leading Hamas figure acknowledged that most of those killed by Israeli fire were combatants, including police officers trained to fight against Israel. They couldn't be bothered by the disclosure that their hero had ordered the torture of black prisoners and the execution of black defendants who never would have been subject to whipping or capital punishment had they been white. "He was just doing his job," his defenders claimed, an excuse reminiscent of even darker times.
The Nation, and others who toe to their "Israel is always wrong" line, cared only that Goldstone, a Jew and a Zionist to boot, had concluded that it was Israeli policy -- determined at the highest level -- to target Palestinian civilians, and that it was not Hamas policy to fire their rockets at Israeli civilians while hiding among Palestinian civilians and using them as human shields.
Almost no reasonable observers, who are knowledgeable of Israeli and Hamas policies and actions, credit these conclusions. Even Israel's most strident internal critics -- and there are many and they are quite vocal -- disbelieve these extreme exaggerations.
The only reason the Goldstone report has been given any credibility by anyone is because Goldstone himself is Jewish and purports to be a Zionist. Indeed those seeking to rehabilitate his reputation constantly point to his Jewish background.
Consider a recent article by Letty Pogrebin in The Forward, which appears to be an opening salvo in the battle to rehabilitate Goldstone. It is part of a forthcoming book being published by -- you guessed it -- "The Nation Press." She argues that Israeli efforts to "bury" the report have been "complicated" from the start by "an inconvenient truth: Goldstone was one of them -- a Jew, and not just any Jew, an exemplary one." But the fact that Goldstone is a Jew is not simply a passive "truth." Instead the decision to hire Goldstone precisely because he is as Jew was a critical tactical decision made by the United Nations Human Rights Council, whose long history of applying a double standard to Israel has denied it any credibility.
Pogrebin's defense of Richard Goldstone is as factually inaccurate as the Goldstone report itself. Pogrebin's thesis can be summarized in her own words, "Rather than discuss the contents of the report -- which concluded that during the 2008-2009 Gaza War, Israel, as well as Hamas, may have committed war crimes -- Israel's defenders launched an all-points campaign to bury it." She claims that "almost no one is talking about his findings." She is dead wrong. Within days of the report's publication, there were numerous discussions of the contents and findings of the report. I myself published a 49 page point by point specific criticism of the report's contents entitled "The Case against the Goldstone Report: A Study in Evidentiary Bias." In it I focused on the report's main findings that the 1) Israeli government had a policy of targeting civilians; and 2) that Hamas did not have a policy of hiding behind civilians. I proved that both these findings were contradicted by the evidence. Goldstone has never responded to my substantive criticism.
The Israeli government issued very specific point by point rebuttals of Goldstone's findings, to which he has never responded. Moreover, when students at the Fordham Law School invited Goldstone and me to discuss the contents of the report, Goldstone declined, even though he was teaching at Fordham at the time. I accepted and presented a specific response to the contents of the report. Most recently, I wrote an op-ed showing that an important Hamas leader had made admissions undercutting the report's findings. Again, no response from Goldstone. So Pogrebin is simply incorrect when she says that Israel's defenders refuse to "discuss the contents of the report."
Richard Goldstone can be rehabilitated only if he comes forward and acknowledges that the totality of the evidence -- including the recent admissions of the Hamas leader -- demonstrates that the central conclusions of the Goldstone report were wrong. Goldstone has said that he hopes that new evidence proves them wrong. Now is the time for him to show whether he is "mensch" enough to step forward and set the record straight. So far he has been silent. The world is waiting to hear what he has to say.
It is just draw-dropping that the all the of the members of the fact-finding mission, except Goldstone, had come to the conclusion that Israel violated international law even before they were named to the mission. The excuse they give as to why they shouldn't recuse themselves? Well, this is only a fact-finding mission, and we aren't giving a legal conclusion (although they did improperly make legal conclusions in violation of their mission).
Taking Hamas' claims at face value, no verifying death counts, not using publicly available information, not correcting erroneous claims of destruction, poor sourcing, and the list goes on and on and on.
If this is how international law works, then I would rather take my chances with the Chinese justice system than the UN if I were accused of a crime.
Thankfully, there was strong bipartisan support in Congress in condemning the report.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKC3fWfvS_E
Al Husseini reviews Waffen SS troops. 1943
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1980-036-05,_Amin_al_Husseini_bei_bosnischen_SS-Freiwilligen.jpg”
Tarnished reputation indeed
Today my team heard from mothers and fathers and children the story of the hell on Earth created by Operation Cast Lead. Forty-eight people were killed in this family, children shot in front of parents, parents shot in front of children, a group of 97 in one home blasted to bits by rockets and mortars. Made to live amongst the mutilated and dead for several days, ambulances were kept away and some died slowly over hours and even days.
The asymmetrical nature of the injuries in this situation tells the story. There has been human suffering on both sides-- and that suffering is exactly the same--with people mourning lost loved ones. Only one side has overwhelming military might, and has inflicted roughly ten times the casualties while the other still lives in occupied territory.
Anyway, back to Dersh's opening statement. So, if Goldstone is suspect for his past decisions under the South African government, what about Dersh's involvement in a case where his client nearly decapitated a young Jewish man in a premeditated murder?
Thus the Goldstone Report concludes that a little under a half of those killed (again including police) were combatants. Dershowitz is crowing over his (slanted for including civilian police) figures that say that exactly half of those killed were combatants. The scandal that the Goldstone Report uncovered was that approximately half of those killed were civilians. Dershowitz’s number game does nothing to diminish that scandal.
Most violence Israel commits against Palestinians is structural.
http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/31527/goldstone-responds-death-penalty-allegations
Now where else do they have a death penalty...Ah yes, in the United States. Now will we see a vigorous campaign against the death penalty there? Perhaps a review of cases in Texas of people who were sentenced to death on shoddy police work, forensics or represented by incompetent council?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1869441,00.html
Goldstone Anti-Israeli team, who apparently formed their conclusions before they ever left their cushy U.N. offices, weren't interested in examining any of this evidence.
Where have you find Mr.Goldstone being called anti-Semite? Not cool ...
"There is incontrovertible evidence that Hamas security forces and armed militias have been responsible for grave human rights abuses and that the victims of such abuses and many others are being intimidated and discouraged from testifying about their ordeal.
The Hamas de-facto administration has displayed a flagrant disregard for the most fundamental human rights norms, not only allowing such abuses to be perpetrated, but actually facilitating and encouraging the abuses by justifying them and by granting absolute impunity to the perpetrators"
Goldstone team was too busy interviewing Hamas members to read this report
‘The Mission notes that those interviewed in Gaza appeared reluctant to speak
about the presence of or conduct of hostilities by the Palestinian armed groups. Whatever the reasons for their reluctance, the Mission does not discount that the interviewees’ reluctance may have stemmed from a fear of reprisals’ (Goldstone report 134). This is why the report relied on international reports by UN staff on the ground, media reports, site visits, video, photographs, satellite imagery, medical reports, forensic analysis and written submissions from individuals and organizations on the ground amounting to 10,000 pages of written evidence, 30 videos and 1,200 photographs. The report notes with regret that it didn’t have access to Israeli victims due to Israel’s unwillingness to cooperate with the investigation.
Fact: This army is organized with identifiable leadership and various divisions of function.
Fact: This Gazan army violated every single rule of war from Geneva to Hague Conventions and in between" from failing to wear identifiable uniform to shelling random civilians to using Gazans as human shields,
Mr. Goldstone was too busy to notice that Palestinain soldiers were hiding in civilian mufti in direct violation of the laws of war.
Do you favor prosecuting the Israeli leadership,? because they clearly are in violation of both those things
Or is this more of a racially based system of determining what is a war crime in which only muslims can be guilty
As for these crimes of Palestinians...I'd compare them them to that of the native americans. Europeans with advanced weapons might appear more "civilized" at first, but only a very twisted person could consider them the good guy. It is much more "civilized" to kill people with a musket as opposed to chasing them down on horseback and cutting off their scalp. But that doesn't really change who the thief is
""In the Gaza Strip people are returning home -- or to the rubble that was once their home. Many are blaming Hamas for the destruction because the militants hid among civilians and attracted Israeli fire. Yet no one dares to speak out openly.
Mohammed Sadala's rage is aimed at the man, whose remains he found in his bedroom: a Hamas fighter.... The Hamas men shot at the approaching Israelis from the balcony. The soldiers fired back, killing the militants and destroying the house of the 10-strong family in the process. One of his neighbors weighs in: "Many people are now against Hamas but that won't change anything," he says. "Because anyone who stands up to them is killed." Since they took power Hamas has used brutal force against any dissenters in the Gaza Strip... The reign of terror will go on for some time, says the neighbor who doesn't want to give his name. "There will never be a rebellion against Hamas. It would be suicide."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,603203,00.html
Mr. Goldstone was too busy interfacing Hamas members to interview eye- witnesses mentioned in the above report.