Sunday, September 27, 2009
Melanie Phillips has kind words for Alan Dershowitz and her own broadside for the Human Rights industry: The 'human rights' witch-hunt, "...The terrible thing, as Dershowitz says, is that as a prominent and distinguished Jewish human rights lawyer Goldstone is a lethal weapon in the hands of the Israel-bashers and Jew-haters. But the much more terrible and devastating thing - which Dershowitz does not say -- is that in the person of the secular Jewish human rights lawyer, the Jewish people has in fact created its own nemesis."
And Alan Dershowitz himself: Goldstone report is an ad hominem attack, "The definition of the ad hominem fallacy is to respond to substantive arguments solely by attacking the person who offered them. The mirror image of this classic fallacy is to try to bolster arguments solely by praising the person who offered them. This is what is happening with respect to the notorious Goldstone report regarding Israel's conduct during the Gaza War..."
Quite right, too. I've never read such a volume of substantive criticism heaped on a report so quickly as I have with Goldstone's report that leaves Goldstone himself virtually unscathed. I don't think the West's enemies that support this report can believe it. They keep trying to say that the criticisms aren't substantive, and then falling immediately back to hiding behind Judge Goldstone's religion as if that makes up for the report's lack of substance. Remarkable.
Senators are preparing a letter: Senate letter aims to block any Goldstone-related actions against Israel
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), both on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are circulating a letter asking Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department to block any punitive actions against Israel related to the Goldstone Report.
"As the State Department has stated, Israel is a democratic country, like the United States, with an independent judiciary and democratic institutions to investigate and prosecute abuses," says the letter. "The Israel Defense Forces have a reputation for investigating alleged violations of international law and its internal military code of conduct. As a law-abiding state, Israel is in the process of conducting numerous investigations for which it should be commended not condemned...
The full text of the letter is available at the link.
Finally, Maurice Ostroff (himself of South African origin) has continued his fascinating open exchange with Judge Goldstone: An appeal to Judge Goldstone to review the report of the mission to Gaza
"The e-mails I am now receiving from members of your family including my long-time former colleague Herb demonstrates the futility of my even attempting to respond to all e-mails I am receiving."
Is this an example of the kind of clear, grammatical, disciplined type of writing one would expect to read from a a prominent and distinguished human rights lawyer?