Thursday, September 17, 2009
It'll be awhile before this passes. Here is some more substantive reading material by the people pushing back:
In the Wall Street Journal, NGO Monitor's Gerald Steinberg writes: U.N. Smears Israeli Self-Defense As 'War Crimes' - A one-sided report on the Gaza war lets Hamas off the hook
Dan Kosky writes in The Guardian (!): Goldstone's sins of omission
Richard Landes does his own link dance: Goldstone Commission Report, then does a must-read fisking of Goldstone's New York Times piece: Fisking Goldstone: What's happened to this man? And finally, he presents video evidence that Goldstone apparently couldn't find on YouTube: Hamas and Human Shields: Is it a "human shield" if they're willing?
CAMERA continues doing their annoying work of pick, pick, picking at the facts: Major Error in UN Goldstone Report Calls into Question Work's Credibility
Barry Rubin always has great analysis: The UN Goldstone's Report: A Victory for Terrorists and War Criminals
Meet the witnesses:
UN investigator South African jurist Richard Goldstone (R) walks with Hamas movement representative Ghazi Hamad upon his arrival at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip June 1, 2009. United Nations human rights investigators began work in the Gaza Strip on Monday to try to determine whether war crimes were committed during the offensive Israel launched in the Hamas-ruled territory last December. REUTERS
Who is Ghazi Hamad?
Palestinian Government Spokesman Dr. Ghazi Hamad said that Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth.
...Hamad added that "this is not a country of humans. These are animals and a group of gangs, and this country must be wiped off the face of the earth."...
Hamad is considered a moderate. I'm not kidding. Imagine the UN sending a commission whose mandate had already pronounced the United States guilty to Afghanistan to interview members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda and you start to get the picture of what happened here. [h/t: Judith Apter Klinghoffer]
Update: Alan Dershowitz: UN Investigation of Israel Discredits Itself and Undercuts Human Rights
Update: Judith Apter Klinghoffer: GOLDSTONE PLEASES TERRORIST HAMAS; EXPECT HIM TO CONTINUE TO DO SO
Max Boot: The Goldstone Report
After reading the Goldstone Report on human-rights abuses committed during the Gaza War (December 27, 2008-January 19, 2009), all I can say is, it's a good thing that the United Nations wasn't around during World War II. I can just imagine its producing a supposedly evenhanded report that condemned the Nazis for "grave" abuses such as incinerating Jews, while also condemning the Allies for their equally "grave" abuses such as fire-bombing German and Japanese cities. The recommendation, no doubt, would have been that both sides be tried for war crimes, with Adolf Hitler in the dock alongside Franklin Roosevelt. Actually, that may be giving the UN more credit than it deserves. To judge by the evidence before us, the likelihood is that the UN in those days would have devoted far more space to Allied "abuses" than to those of the Axis and would have recommended that FDR stand alone before the world court...
Pow.
Finally (for now), Marty Peretz: U.S. Is "Concerned" About the Goldstone Report on Gaza; Maybe Washington Should Turn Its Eyes on Afghanistan and Itself
Nope, one more: Elder of Ziyon: Goldstone report inaccuracies part 10
the whole affair is staggeringly corrupt. useful infidels playing right into the hands of the jihadis, all the while insisting on their high principles and best of intentions. those whom the gods would destroy, first they drive mad.
I think too many people simply do not understand how to read this report. The U.N. is not objective because it can't be; regardless of world politics, the U.N. has too many of its own people at risk in the world, and safeguarding its own has been its priority for a long time.
What does this mean? The Goldstone report contains the confession that Hamas leaders employed human shields, but adds that confession is not proof to shield itself from retribution. It also means the the UNHCR (most of the UN's personnel in Gaza) responds by withdrawing the educational material on the Holocaust that Hamas objects to.
Principle only goes so far at the U.N. - very little, if you have no soldiers willing and able to prevent U.N. personnel from being abused at the hands of their hosts. The Goldstone report contains lots of stuff illuminating Hamas - even if the U.N. can't come out and say that explicitly.