Goldstone: ‘I’m wrong’

If ever there were a more vivid example of the consequence of slander, we are at a loss to name it. The legendary Jewish sage, Chafetz Chaim, put it perfectly: Slander is like a person cutting up a pillow of feathers in the wind. Now, go gather up all the feathers.

It is impossible.

So it is with slander.

So it is with Judge Richard Goldstone, who wrote, under the imprimatur of the UN, that Israel intentionally targeted civilians during Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip in December, 2009, and January, 2010.

 

Israel invaded to put a stop to the thousands of missiles fired by Hamas operatives and sympathizers on civilian targets in Israel —on cities, playgrounds, houses, schools, marketplaces, gymnasia. Of the Hamas intent to target civilians, there is no doubt. Neither by the evidence nor by the admitted policy of Hamas.

 

But Israel is expected to live by the double standard. What is overlooked internationally for Hamas is not overlooked for Israel. And so, if it can credibly be proven that Israel targeted civilians, that is reason enough for anti-Israel hatred and anti-Semitism against all Jews, notwithstanding a parallel Hamas practice.

Parallel, that is, if Israel actually, intentionally, targeted civilians.

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But Israel didn’t. Many around the world find it convenient to think that Israel did because of, among other excuses, the Goldstone Report, authored by a Jew and authorized by the UN. He said it straight out: Israel targeted civilians.

Now, however, Judge Goldstone is singing a different tune. He says that credible Israeli investigations of Israel’s behavior show that an individual Israeli soldier may have targeted a civilian here or there, but that it was Israel’s policy not to target civilians.

Good morning, Mr. Goldstone.

It has always been Israeli policy not to target civilians. The policy was nothing new during the Gaza operation.

The very anguish that has always arisen among Israeli soldiers in going after an enemy who intentionally stations himself among civilians is now felt by American and European pilots going after Qadaffi’s men in Libya.

Qadaffi’s’ men, too, intentionally choose to fight from within schools, homes, hospitals and other civilian locations, precisely to weaken the resolve or undermine the morale of the NATO coalition forces.

Maybe the NATO members will now understand the Israeli distinction between intentionally targeting civilians and woefully killing them due to their deliberate endangerment by the enemy.

Apparently, this is the distinction that Judge Goldstone now apprehends.

Not that he admits that he had any choice but to be wrong. The reason that he erroneously wrote in his report that Israel intentionally targeted civilians was Israel’s failure to cooperate with him. Had Israel cooperated, then he would not have reached the wrong conclusion. He was wrong in his conclusion, but the blame still rests with Israel.

Thus the gospel according to Goldstone.

Is he right?

Consider:

First, before Goldstone asked for Israel’s cooperation, the mission statement of the UN was to investigate Israel’s crimes. The conclusion of the UNreport was prejudged. Israel was criminal; we just need to get the details. Goldstone objected to this, but Israel said: We know the UN bias against Israel only too well. It is impossible for its investigation to be fair and impartial.

Dear Mr. Goldstone: When Israel spoke of its long and bitter experience with the UN, it was time for you to listen to Israel. But no.  You knew better. You were recalcitrant. And now look what you’ve done: spread slander of Israel around the world, like feathers in the wind.

And look at yourself: You’re still not big enough to admit culpability.

And culpable you surely are, for your recalcitrance, and for a second consideration, too. You place the entire blame on Israel for the Goldstone Report’s erroneous, indeed lethal, conclusion. But you engage in a methodological logic-chop. You say now that it was Israel’s own investigations of its own behavior during the Gaza operation that convinced you that Israel did not intentionally target civilians.

But those investigations were not available at the time you prepared your report. Even had Israel cooperated with you, the long time it took for Israel to fairly and comprehensively do its own investigations means that you would not have had the evidence that you now say has changed your mind.

Not to mention, even if you had possessed Israel’s exculpatory information and then cleared Israel of intentionally targeting civilians  — based on the information supplied by Israel — you, a Jew, would have been accused of bias by all of Israel’s enemies, none of which would have believed you.

You simply fail to understand that the process in which you willingly participated — the UN process — could never have been fair.

Buck up, Mr. Goldstone. You place blame on others when it is you who failed. You failed the Jewish people miserably. Who knows how much anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate you caused? Who knows how much trouble Israel may face from the prospect of a UN willing to declare a Palestinian state unilaterally because of you?

When you were a judge under the apartheid regime in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, you had no trouble sentencing (or confirming the sentences of) 28 black people to the gallows. So what’s it to you if, in effect, you’ve sentenced innocent Israelis and Jews to death?

Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News