Friday, October 16, 2009
I been collecting the links again! First, let's get this out of the way. Richard Goldstone is either the most naive or the dumbest man on the international scene today: UN body okays Goldstone Gaza report accusing Israel of war crimes
South African jurist Richard Goldstone, who headed a United Nations investigation into the conduct of Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas during Israel's offensive in Gaza last winter, criticized on Friday the United Nations Human Rights Council's decision to endorse the report his commission had compiled.
The council on Friday endorsed the report, which accused both Israel and the militant group Hamas of committing war crimes during the December-January conflict in Gaza.
Goldstone told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps before the vote that the wording of the resolution was unfortunate because it included only censure of Israel. He voiced hope that the Human Rights Council would alter the wording of the draft...
Yeah, that'll happen. Idiot.
Richard Landes tries to get into Goldstone's head: What's going on in Goldstone's head? Good luck getting through the skull.
Noah Pollak had already noted from a prior Goldstone quote: "...So let's get this straight: Judge Goldstone led a "fact-finding mission" to Gaza and then produced a 575-page report that contains "nothing" that could be "proven in a court of law." It may not contain facts, in other words. Despite his lack of confidence in his own claims, he insists that "the burden is now on Israel to counter these findings through its own probe" -- "these findings" being his charge that the IDF intentionally killed civilians and committed sundry war crimes..."
25 Yes, 11 Abstain, 6 No
Abstentions: Belgium, Bosnia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Korea, Slovenia, Uruguay
No: Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Ukraine, USA
Countries that did not vote: United Kingdom, Madagascar, Kyrgyzstan, France, Angola
Yes: Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Djbouti, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia
Barry Rubin is a must-read, as always: The Window of Opportunity is Now Closed and Locked Down: Passing Goldstone Resolution Marks End of Peace Process Era - "...Good-bye hope for peace. I now declare the window of opportunity that had seemed to open in the late 1980s, which met and failed the test of the Oslo process, and yet which continues to inspire false hope for many people to be fully and officially closed."
The Wall Street Journal editorializes: Britain's Terror Double Take - Help on Afghanistan, a moral disgrace on Gaza - "...By declaring Israel's war against Hamas possibly a "crime against humanity," the Goldstone report could make any other country think twice before engaging a terror group. By its reasoning, Winston Churchill may have been charged with ordering bombing raids on Germany that took civilian lives. For that matter, the current Prime Minister might find himself in the dock for civilians harmed in Britain's fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan's Helmand province. That's what's on the line in Geneva today."
At the JPost, Warren Goldstein notes that It looks like law, but it's just politics. Politics for some, Jihad for others.
UN Watch has the wonderful testimony issued by British Colonel Richard Kemp before the UNHRC. This will help keep you sane in an insane world (previous video of Kemp from during Cast Lead is here): Self-Defense is not a Crime of War
Transcript at the link.
Elder of Ziyon notes that the resolution goes far beyond simply condemning Israel for Cast Lead, this is part of the assault on the existence of the sole Jewish State: UN votes to bar Jews from their holiest spot
He also continues to dig into the details of the report: Goldstone and the Abu Askars - "I just looked at the testimony of one of the Goldstone witnesses, Mohammed Abu Askar. While the report did mention that he was a Hamas member it stressed that he was not a member of the Qassam Brigades. He testified concerning the Fakhoura school incident. Here is a prime example of how credulous the commission was of his testimony..." How credulous were they? Read at the link.
At YNet: Guilty without a trial - Moshe Dann analyzes Goldstone Report's findings and how Israel was set up - "...According to the ICRC, Article 51 of the UN Charter does not allow Israel to act in self-defense against terrorists because "they are not a state but organized individuals among the population it occupies." Terrorists, according to this interpretation, may be "criminals - (but) not military targets," unless they are directly engaged in carrying out a terrorist act at the time; if not, they should be arrested and are entitled to due process in courts of law. Such a position is obviously absurd in reality..." That's the way things are heading. Absurdity.
NGO Monitor notes that Human Rights Watch is performing more as a PR pimp-machine than a legitimate monitoring group (my characterization): Human Rights Watch: Selling Goldstone's Indictment - "# Human Rights Watch (HRW) is leading the campaign to promote the widely criticized "Goldstone report" on the Gaza War, with close to thirty statements to date. These statements repeatedly equate Israel to Hamas, immorally compare its response to attacks on civilians to the genocide in Sudan, falsely accuse Israel of "willfully" killing civilians, and raise the specter of the "Israel lobby."..." Etc...
Did you know that Esquire has been defending HRW's Marc Garlasco? Seriously. NGO Monitor responds: Garlasco's Friends at Esquire Do Him No Favors
Also related, Yaacov Lozowick has posted a very interesting exchange with an Amnesty International representative. It's remarkable how sloppy and biased AI really is: Lozowick & Durkin Disagree. AI and HRW have really and truly devolved.
I wonder if we're not being too tough on Goldstone.
It's possible that without him, the report would have been 100 times worse.
And, it's important to note that he didn't undertake the "investigation" of his own accord - but rather at the instigation of the UNHRC.
I think the latter should be investigated for bias and also for failing to protect the millions of people around the world who are harmed every year.
They are too busy investigating Israel apparently.
That really is a crime.
Meanwhile, it's upsetting because if there was wrongdoing on the part of Israeli soldiers this SHOULD be investigated but it must be done in an unbiased manner and in the context of the war and this includes the reason for the war - which was to prevent terrorist attacks on civilians.
Somehow that's gotten lost in the shuffle.
I would say you're being too charitable to Goldstone personally. He's put himself and his heritage out in front as a stalking horse for this horror. He gave it cover, and he's continued to cover for it, and he knows what he's doing.
Don't forget that the IDF does and has done its own investigations. All free countries with disciplined armies must do so. You certainly wouldn't want an international group like this looking over your shoulder while you did.
I think that the assertion that 'all' countries fighting terrorism will find themselves in the dock is clearly overblown. This has one effect and one effect only, to condemn Israel. No sane person seriously worries that Sudan or Indonesia or Nigeria or Zimbabwe or Venezuela or China are even going to be accused let alone charged with anything like this. And were the US or any EU state or Russia charged, they'd ignore it. This is 100% about Israel, about the Jews.
After watching this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kDlF2fc0wg
"Lining up to congratulate Goldstone are some of the world’s leading human rights abusers. They understood the report as granting a license to declare Israel guilty of a "holocaust," "concentration camps," "genocide," and "crimes against humanity."
Also in the video are statements by Israel's accusers which illustrate the political agenda behind the Goldstone mission. "
I happened to catch Goldstone on Fareed Zakaria's GPS where he said this:
"ZAKARIA: When you look at these crimes against humanity, these war crimes, how do they compare? You have a long career. You've seen many of these kinds of things, investigated some. Where does this stand? How should we think of it?
GOLDSTONE: Well, you know, I don't like making comparisons because each situation is so different. But certainly one can compare what has happened here to situations that I've investigated in the former Yugoslavian genocide. One doesn't here in respect of Gaza get anywhere in my view anywhere near that sort of situation.
It's very different. Many people are comparing what's happening in the occupied territories to apartheid South Africa. I don't like that comparison. There's some similarities, but there are more differences."
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0910/04/fzgps.01.html
The testimony of the author himself, who wrote what amounts to a harsh prosecutorial indictment of Israel, severe enough in its findings to merit being labeled as a "blood libel" (a judgment I concur with), objects to comparisons --equivalences-- suggested between the events he investigated and such enterprises as genocide, holocaust or apartheid. But he now sees his own report being bastardized, distorted, falsified, in the most heinous way, and it's all done in full view, by the gang of thugs he so faithfully served. Does he not know that you cannot make such pacts with the devil?
India? You'd think after they experienced the Mumbai attack they'd have a little more insight into what it takes for a country to defend itself.
And India and Pakistan almost had a nuclear war over a land dispute, Kashmir.
I was also surprised by the Philippines because the Philippines has a muslim separatist group trying to carve a muslim state out of the southern Philippines.
Sophia,
Did you bother to read Goldstone's report?
The first thing noticeable in his demand for and as you describe part of Israeli soldiers this SHOULD be investigated but it must be done in an unbiased manner
was his "trashing" of the Israeli justice system.
Dershovitz certainly was enraged by that.
There were even comments mentioning the Israeli Supreme being involved in military investigations; which even in the US the Supreme court does not get involved in.
Goldstone got himself into a fix which even Mary Robinson declined. What an asshole and now you cover for him and the damage to collective Jewry?
Hi Cynic,
I admit I haven't read the whole report, but I have read substantial parts of it.
I did see the part about this Israeli justice system and I was completely baffled by it. I was shocked to be honest. It's especially absurd because it's accompanied by a statement praising the Hamas justice system - in fact that's beyond absurd, it's offensive, particularly in view of the treatment of Fatah members.
I agree on balance the report is dreadful. What's more dreadful is that, although it included statements to the effect that Hamas was in violation, only Israel is being called to account by the UNHRC.
Goldstone himself finds that upsetting apparently and also he has subsequently played down the idea that it was a real "investigation", more of a report of what people were saying, and that none of it could be proved.
So what I'm wondering is, would it have been even worse without Goldstone's participation? I would say it's quite possible. The bias against Israel is so blatant one can only imagine if the "investigation" had been carried out minus any balancing voice whatsoever. That is my point.
Of course it's also possible that Goldstone, because he IS Jewish and has ties to Israel, was even more critical than necessary - it isn't an uncommon phenomenon.
In any case the bias is so wrong on many levels, not least of which is the fact that it makes it nearly impossible for us to examine our own actions because we're always on the defensive.
Face it, when you're routinely libeled and accused of war crimes and even genocide and being a vampire, etc, it's hard to take ANY criticism seriously, even constructive criticism from within the community.
PS, I was uneasy from the start with the decision to keep reporters away from the strife. This has made it possible for people to say whatever they want because no objective journalists were present to confirm or deny what amount to rumors. Even well-meaning eyewitness accounts are often wrong, especially in confusing and violent situation. So the exclusion of the press may have been a huge mistake.