Human Rights Watch Stands by Its Slanders of Israel

From: Commentary Magazine Human Rights Watch absorbed a major blow to its credibility when Richard Goldstone recanted his September 2009 report on Israel’s war in Gaza. After all, the organization has been one of the report’s leading cheerleaders, and it has long stood at the center of the campaign to delegitimize Israeli self-defense against Palestinian terrorism. No one should have been surprised when Kenneth Roth, the executive director, claimed that the charge that Israel deliberately targeted civilians—now shown to be false—is somehow still true.

Writing in the Guardian, itself a hotbed of anti-Zionism, Roth first claims that Goldstone is right to say now “that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.” But then he contradicts himself by asserting that Israel’s “large-scale attacks” and use of artillery was nevertheless a war crime. Roth’s conclusion is that “this misconduct was so widespread and systematic that it clearly reflected Israeli policy.”

Roth apparently is not to be shaken from his belief that Israel’s entire campaign was illegitimate for no other reason than that the Hamas terrorists took up their positions among civilians.

Peres: Goldstone owes the State of Israel an apology

From: Jerusalem Post

President says retired judge ignored reasons for Cast Lead, Israel still one of most moral armies; Barak: Goldstone apology is too little, too late; Lieberman: Report is the price for Israel's commitment to justice.

Addressing a recent op-ed by Richard Goldstone, President Shimon Peres said that the retired South African jurist should apologize to the State of Israel for accusing it of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead, Israel Radio reported.

"Goldstone ignored the central reason for the IDF operation in Gaza," Peres said, "the firing of thousands of rockets at innocent Israeli citizens."

He added that the IDF acted in self defense, investigated its own actions and will continue to be one of the most moral armies in the world.

Goldstone Recants! Will the Left Follow His Example?

From: Commentary Magazine:

In what must be considered as shocking a turnaround as any we have seen in recent years, Richard Goldstone, the chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s fact-finding commission about the conflict in Gaza, has retracted his claim that Israel deliberately sought to target and kill Palestinian civilians.

A product of the Human Rights Council, an organization that is singularly dedicated to besmirching and attacking Israel while ignoring serious crimes elsewhere (including those committed by the nations that makes up its membership), the Goldstone Report was widely criticized for its one-sided nature and the inaccuracy of its claims. But with Goldstone, who is a prominent South African Jew, as its front man, the report became the centerpiece of a new round of efforts aimed at both delegitimizing the Jewish state and its right of self-defense. His claims were taken up by anti-Zionists across the globe and in particular by those American left-wingers such as the J Street lobby and Michael Lerner’s Tikkun, which have both sought to establish themselves as Jewish critics of Israel and its defenders in this country.