The Goldstone Recantation

The Goldstone Recantation [Excerpts]

Sometime Friday night, April 1, 2011, which was also the Jewish Sabbath, the Washington Post published, online, a rather remarkable op-ed piece by South African jurist Richard Goldstone. Essentially, Goldstone recanted his own “Goldstone Report,” a document which has been used against Israel in countless, damaging ways, a document which accuses Israel of possible “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in its incursion into Gaza in response to the 10,000 rockets Hamas launched towards Israeli civilians in Sderot and southern Israel—a document which charges Israel with having “purposely targeted civilians in Gaza.”

Goldstone now admits that all the above charges are wrong, false, are based on too-little-information or on flawed-information. He partly blames Israel for not “co-operating” with the venomously biased Human Rights Council, but in truth, Goldstone really had available much of the information which is now contained in Israel’s painfully careful investigation of what happened in Gaza.

Israel looked into the false allegations that it had “targeted civilians” and investigated itself thoroughly. Of course, although Goldstone also charged Hamas with this same task—Hamas did not do so. Now, rather late in the day, Goldstone has finally noted that there are actually some important differences between an open, transparent, lawful, ethical, and democratic Jewish state and an Islamist-terrorist organization such as Hamas.

One wonders: Why is Goldstone recanting? And, if he is, indeed, recanting, why does he still hold back, why does he still not admit all that is known about the truth? But that is a question for another day. (I am sure that some Jewish leftists will insist that Goldstone was death-threatened by the Zionist Lobby, or could no longer bear his pariah status. Indeed, such articles have already appeared, long before this recantation. I doubt such cult leaders will pay attention to Israel’s careful documentation.

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/04/04/the-goldstone-recantation/