Thursday, December 30, 2010
It shouldn't be a surprise, but it always is. Richard Goldstone's defenders complain that his detractors a) Don't present any facts, and b) attack Goldstone in a personally abusive manner.
They do this by a) Showing they haven't independently examined the facts, nor do they present any, and b) attacking Goldstone's critics in as base an ad hominem manner as possible.
So goes the latest from Letty Cottin Pogrebin appearing in The Forward who plays precisely true to type. (Why The Forward is printing such tripe is an open question.) A book-length treatment is promised/threatened. Those who have been around for awhile, and followed the construction of the Understanding the Goldstone Report web site will understand how infuriating this is.
Elder of Ziyon unloads in The Forward comments:
I take personal offence to this article.
From the moment that Goldstone's report was released, I - along with other bloggers, prominent writers and others - have spent countless hours writing specific criticisms of the report. I personally wrote at least 25 articles on my blog cross-referencing Goldstone's assertions with reliable information available from other sources, proving Goldstone's pattern of bias and disregard for facts and international law.
I daresay that I read Goldstone's report with much greater care than Letty Cottin Pogrebin did.
To say that I and my fellow critics of Goldstone did not address the contents of the report is simply a lie. To say that we wanted to bury it is ridiculous - I quoted large swaths of the report in my articles. On the contrary, we wanted to highlight the report's lies and bias for the many people - including, sadly, most journalists - who themselves couldn't be bothered to actually read it.
I invite readers to look at the many weighty criticisms of Goldstone available at goldstonereport.org. I would invite Pogrebin to do the same, but it appears that she is guilty of what she accuses us - making false claims without actually reading the content.
Omri Ceren has a great treatment at Contentions: Goldstone Book Author: Critics Refuse to 'Discuss the Contents of the Report', and Carl in Jerusalem: The Forward lies in defense of St. Richard
Update: And don't miss this dump-truck full of substance from Daled Amos: Neither Letty Cottin Pogrebin Nor Goldstone Have Read The Rebuttals Of The Goldstone Report [h/t: SoccerDad]
