Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The State Department & J Street Welcome Goldstone's Retraction

In light of my previous post poking fun at the State Department, and my dissatisfaction with J Street, it's only fair to note that both august organizations think Richard Goldstone's recent retraction of parts of his own UN report are to be welcomed. Or in other words, they're not buying into the arguments being offered by the anti-Israeli blogosphere such as Mondoweiss or Andrew Sullivan, about how Goldstone's retraction doesn't mean anything and he got it all wrong. In the case of the State Department, this isn't surprising, since the American position was always that the Goldstone Report was hopelessly biased. J Street, however, had a bit of a problem at the time, when it did or didn't assist in arranging meetings for Goldstone with members of Congress. So it's nice that this time Jeremy Ben Ami seems to be clearly on the correct side of the discussion.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Weird no one on the anti-Israeli front were ever as careful "parsing" the original document....

Danny

Anonymous said...

Neither the State Department nor J Street has called for a retraction and the British are opposed.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=215240

And Ben-Ami ends with a call for a two-state solution "that we reduce the chances of future conflicts entailing civilian casualties, alleged human rights violations and investigative reports." How such an agreement would prevent Hamas from continuing its human right violations against both Israeli and Palestinian isn't explained.

T34

Barry Meislin said...

The lie must be allowed to live.

To be nourished.

To be embraced.

To be repeated.

And now, with Egypt's apparent rapprochement with Iran (along with its declaration of protection for Hamas), and Turkey's antagonistic power flexing, the noose is just about complete.

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2011/04/richard-goldstone-and-palestin.php

peterthehungarian said...

Maybe they welcome Goldstone' newest , Ken Roth of HRW definitely doesn't.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=215166#

Barry said...

Britain's Foreign Office pledges continued support for Goldstone report against Israel,
even as Goldstone retracts allegations

The Foreign Office, however, confirmed its continued support for investigations into Cast Lead and said it did not want to see the withdrawal of the Goldstone Report from the United Nations.

Goldstone gave them an excuse which they are loathe to surrender in their quest to get rid of Israel.

Saul Lieberman said...

My impression (from the Haaretz articles only) was that the State Department was more favorable to Israel than the "Pro Israel" group.

Saul Lieberman said...

... and check out the apology at the end of this post http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2011/04/on-damascus-blood-libel-haggadah-and.html

Barry Meislin said...

And here's the morning round-up (Enjoy!):

Report: Goldstone accepts Yishai invitation to visit Israel
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=215273

Wow!

Report: Goldstone does not intend to nullify Gaza report
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=215346

Heh!

Obama: Solving Palestinian conflict "more urgent than ever

Heh, heh!!
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=215296

Oh well, another day, another donut.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/04/05/flashback-using-goldstone-against-israel/