Goldstone: "If I Had Known Then What I Know Now...", with Editorial Comments

Issue 7, Summer 2011

G P N S T O R Y

Writing in a Washington Post column, Judge Richard Goldstone said that if Israel had cooperated with his United Nations fact-finding commission's investigation of the events of Operation Cast Lead, the charges of alleged war crimes and intentional targeting of civilians, would have been different.

Goldstone said, "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone report would have been a different document."

Goldstone said that while, ""Israeli evidence that has emerged since publication of our report doesn’t negate the tragic loss of civilian life, I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes."

Yediot Aharonot, Israel's most popular daily newspaper reported, "After accusing Israel with war crimes and providing ammunition to Israel's antagonists, Goldstone expresses regret. In the article in the Washington Post he admitted that in contrast to the Israel Defense Force, Hamas attacks civilians intentionally from the outset.

Goldstone also criticized the UN Human Rights Council's anti-Israel bias, saying that he had hoped that the report could "begin a new era of evenhandedness at the UN Human Rights Council, whose history of bias against Israel cannot be doubted."

The Israeli press has now received Goldstone's retraction in mixed ways. Popular columnist, Nahum Barnea, of Yediot Ahronot, wrote "The report Goldstone issued was biased and misleading, a document that was a waste of the paper on which it was printed." Barnea also doesn't believe that the praise Goldstone has now expressed for the investigations by the Israel Defense Forces of alleged war crimes and the legal actions taken against offending officers will reduce the damage he previously did. Nonetheless, Barnea says Israel now has another lesson to learn that it should not have refused to cooperate with Goldstone's original investigation. Maybe the U.S., Russia and China can boycott international investigations he says, but Israel cannot.

Sources:
Haaretz Service (April 2, 2011). Goldstone: Claims of Israel's Gaza war crimes should be reconsidered. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/goldstone-claims-of-israel-s-gaza-war-crimes-should-be-reconsidered-1.353630

Haaretz.com (April 3, 2011). Hamas: Goldstone retreat doesn't negate war crimes committed in Gaza. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-goldstone-retreat-doesn-t-negate-war-crimes-committed-in-gaza-1.353716

Azulay, Orly and Ochama, Itamar (April 3, 2011). "I was mistaken. Not war crimes." Yediot Ahronot (Hebrew).

Sanders, Edmund (April 4, 2011). Critic eases stance on Israel conduct. Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/04/world/la-fg-israel-goldstone-20110404

Editor's Comments on Goldstone's Revised Views of Israel and Hamas

In my judgment Judge Goldstone's correction is principled and courageous. At the time of the Goldstone Report I wrote an op-ed to the effect that the report was indeed disgraceful, but that the intense criticisms of Judge Richard Goldstone were disgraceful expressions of prejudice and persecutory denigration of a person. First, I argued, Goldstone had a meritorious record in organizing and heading UN Tribunals that prosecuted genociders. Second, I pointed out that Goldstone personally was a proven committed Jewish and Zionist leader, and that the vituperation being heaped on him was no less than illustrative of anti-semitic language. I argued that although strong criticism of the report was entirely legitimate and justified, the extreme personal defamation was not. Alas, my critique of the extreme denunciations was politically incorrect, and I failed to place the previous in each of the following and more: Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post. I gave up. -IWC

Tags: Israel | War crimes

Share |