Saturday, October 31, 2009

Goldstone: There Are Brave Israelis!

Another hour or two and I'll have completed the reading of the Goldstone Report. I hope to find the time this week to write a reasoned response to it. If the topic weren't so serious it would be comic. In the meantime, here's another nugget of wisdom from the report. On page 528 the report is bemoaning the stifling of free and democratic discourse in Israel - but there are still brave souls fighting the good fight:

1701. In this context of increased intolerance for dissenting opinions in Israel, the mission wishes to acknowledge the difficult work of non-governmental organizations in Israel, who courageously continue to express criticism of government action that violates international human rights and humanitarian law. The work of these organizations is essential not only to ensure independent information to the Israeli and international public, but also to encourage a facts-based debate about these issues within Israeli society.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

could you also check out:

http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90006003

and
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/10/quot-1.html#more

and post material we can use to email to readers of harpers or andrew sullivan?

Gavin said...

That Harpers interview is truly bizarre. Even Goldstone had to admit they found no evidence of Dime munitions, and yet there's Travers adding it to the list of Israels crimes against the solar system.

A useful showcase of their bias is the section on the rocket attacks, paragraph 1714 is telling;

"The Mission is concerned about the disparity in treatment of Jewish and Palestinian citizens by the Government of Israel in the installation of early warning systems and provision of public shelters and fortified schools between its Jewish and Palestinian citizens"

Even Goldstone can't have failed to notice that the rockets are only fired at Jewish settlements. Why do the Palestinian villages need protection when they're not the target?

I can't finish the report, it is so biased and such an insult to the intelligence it is infuriating.