Where is Judge Goldstone?

Someone wrote to me so:

According to the  Wall Street Journal, 2/28/12  over 125 deaths were reported across Syria the highest daily toll since the government launched artillery attacks on Homs. According to the UN the death toll in  the Syria is 7500.

This compels us to ask:–Where  is Judge Goldstone?  Where are the moral dilemmas? Where it is the angst? Where are the bleeding heart liberals? 

Where  are resolutions before the City Councils?  Where are the  campus campaigns? Where is the campaign to divest?

Nu, I ask you.

Here is the Human Rights Council in debate. Their condemantion of December.
Here are EU sanctions.  Here is the Arab League.

Here is Syria:

Syria Threatens Assault on Homs

Damascus Blocks U.N. Humanitarian Officer's Visit, Says Baba Amr Will Be 'Cleansed'.

Syrian troops massed around a rebel-held neighborhood of Homs on Wednesday, raising fears that the government was preparing an all-out ground assault there, as Damascus thwarted efforts by the U.N.'s top humanitarian official to gain entry to the country.

"Baba Amr will be under...complete control in the coming hours and we'll cleanse all the armed elements from the area," a Syrian government official said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press,

But where is Judge Goldstone?

Even a Haaretz blogger is looking for him. The situation is that bad.

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Jessica Montell Discovers My Vocabulary Contribution

B'tselem's Jessica Montell writes today in the Washington Post:

The word Goldstone has entered the modern Hebrew lexicon as shorthand for anti-Israel bias and the deterioration of Israel’s international position.

Absolutely and I coined it in October 2009.

Read it here:

goldstoned 

–adjective Slang.

1. attacked for acting in a presumed criminal manner, in particular of abusing human rights and of performing war crimes, - in a manner and fashion which is unfair, based on questionable testimony, framed in radical and progressive political ideology and predicated on a perverse interpretation of law, all the while...

Nasty Ken Roth Wroths

He has a letter in the NYTimes today, trying to damage-control the Goldstone recantation:

To the Editor:


The significance of Richard Goldstone’s Op-Ed article in The Washington Post is being overblown. As the judge who led an investigation into the Gaza conflict, he stands by most of his report.

Mr. Goldstone’s shift focuses on his allegation that Israel had an apparent policy to target civilians. He says that because of information now available, he no longer concludes that civilians were intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.

Human Rights Watch’s investigation in Gaza found some cases of apparently deliberate killing of civilians by Israeli soldiers, such as the killing of 11 civilians holding white flags, but no evidence that these resulted from a policy to target civilians.

However, Mr. Goldstone has not repudiated his panel’s findings that Israel committed numerous serious violations of the laws of war. Israeli forces, according to the Goldstone report, indiscriminately used heavy artillery and white phosphorous in densely populated areas and deliberately destroyed civilian buildings and infrastructure without a lawful military reason. That conduct was so widespread and systematic that it must have reflected policy.

As for investigations, Israel looks good only by comparison with Hamas, which has done nothing at all to investigate its war crimes. Israel has indicted four soldiers and convicted three. Only one has served jail time (7 1/2 months), for stealing a credit card.

Israel has yet to investigate the policies behind the indiscriminate attacks that caused so much civilian harm.

KENNETH ROTH
Executive Director
Human Rights Watch
New York, April 3, 2011

a) in writing "As the judge...", Roth seeks to imply this was an actual judicial inquiry rather than an investigative one.

b) in writing "apparently deliberate killing" he seeks to offset Goldstone who insists Israel had no intentional policy.  Israel never claimed there could have been such cases of local lack of discipline, and actually investigated claims of such.  He is comparing apples and pears.  He also adds "apparent" to cover his tuches.

c)  those 'findings' are disputed by Israel and the proof is not based in all cases on reliable sources.

Poor chap.

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And What To You Think of Goldstone?

.

^

Is Goldstone Hanging Himself?

This is as far as Richard Goldstone goes in describing a stupid report he authored:

The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.

Isn't he lucky no one will sentenced him to hanging (unlike the Blacks he sentenced to the gallows when a South African judge)?

P.S.

Melanie Phillips writes:

By his own admission, the man stands revealed as at best an abject idiot and at worst a moral and judicial bankrupt...The UN should now declare the Goldstone report null and void. Any less will make it knowingly and demonstrably party to a travesty of justice.

But of course, like all previous blood libels against the Jews, the poison this one has injected into the global bloodstream has no antidote. The damage is done – and no amount of self-serving recantations by Richard Goldstone will undo the terrible harm he has done.

and much more.
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The Previous Apartheid Goldstone Reference

That Ynet story on Goldstone's apartheid judge history was known partially earlier:-

...At university you belonged to NUSAS showing that you cared about racial discrimination. In 1978 you accepted an appointment from Jimmy Kruger, Minister of Justice, to be a temporary judge to the Transvaal Supreme Court. Jimmy Kruger was often called the Himmler of apartheid. You were not forced to accept this appointment which was made permanent in 1980. When queried why you accepted to be an apartheid judge, you replied that you preferred to try and change things from within. I have to deduce at this stage:

1. You are a brilliant man to have been made a judge at such an early age.
2. You wanted to advance your career.
3. Perhaps you had changed your mind from NUSAS days.
4. You did not tell the truth about changing things from within, because you knew full well that any statement against apartheid with people like Jimmy Kruger and p.W. Botha around, would have led to immediate dismissal.

After 1980 your career advanced extremely rapidly in the apartheid regime. You were appointed to the Appellate Division of the S.A. Supreme Court which was a top position in the apartheid hierarchy. You are known to have mixed socially with the Afrikaner leaders. You are known to have assisted P.W. Botha to cover up what was going on during the state of emergency which made you an accomplice to apartheid policy.

After Nelson Mandela was released from jail, and De Klerk still had a strong influence, De Klerk appointed you to head a commission to investigate the causes of violence in the country. You helped to protect De Klerk’s image by a verdict that Sithole committed suicide in spite of evidence to the contrary. You also exonerated all the security forces from any guilt during the violence. You found no evidence of the operation of a third force.

Some time before the General Election in 1994, you started to change your report which ended up confirming the existence of a third force of government forces committing atrocities against Blacks. You also refused to investigate reports of ANC violence against Whites despite evidence of it’s existence. You had deserted De Klerk and became an ANC hero. Mandela was grateful to you and appointed you to the newly formed Constitutional Court. Now my deductions will lead to finality:

1. The above indicates that you have a brilliant ability at twisting and turning in order to best serve your own personal interests. It proved that you could not have supported apartheid in your heart but you certainly convinced the Afrikaans leaders that you did.

2. Your maneuvering to support and then deceive De Klerk is mesmerizing. Your feat in becoming an ANC hero after a past of being an apartheid judge is more than mesmerizing...

ROY CHWEIDAN
NETANYA

The Immorality of Goldstone

In Miriam Shaviv's story, "Judge Goldstone responds to death penalty story", (background) I found this:

...3. It was a difficult moral decision taking an appointment during the Apartheid era.

Yes, it was.

And he failed.

And he claims Israel's morality is worse.


_ _ _

Goldstone Is...Goldstoned or Will He Be Stoned?

So, will an arrest warrant be issued for crimes against humanity or will he use the Nazi excuse - orders need be followed?

'Goldstone sent 28 SA blacks to death'

Jurist Richard Goldstone was responsible for sending at least 28 black South Africans to death when they appeared before him during the apartheid regime, Yediot Aharonot reported Wednesday...while serving as a judge in the South African Court of Appeals.

Goldstone presided during the 1980s and 1990s, and wrote in one of his rulings that the gallows are the only deterrent for killers.

However, he responded to the report by saying that he was a part of the system and had to respect the laws of the state, occasionally having to enforce laws he was opposed to.

The former judge was also responsible for sending four men accused of violent acts to receive lashes alongside the upholding of other racist laws, Yediot Aharonot said.

More Goldstoning - Another Goldstone Error

In this report, Richard Goldstone says

“The State of Israel was established in 1948 by the United Nations acting on the principles of international law.”

I was informed aby a professor of international law that:

The principles of international law do not grant the United Nations the authority to establish states.

And as a matter of history, in 1948, the United Nations took no steps whatsoever to help Israel in establishing its own state in accordance with the principles of international law.

In fact, in 1948, the United Nation stood by as the Arab League states, aided by a permanent member of the Security Council attempted to prevent the establishment of the state of Israel, using military force in violation of principles of international law and the UN Charter.

The 1947 vote of the General Assembly is nice, but irrelevant to the establishment of the state of Israel under international law.

Oh, and he also said this:

I am not aware that the UN Gaza Report has or is being used to delegitimize Israel by questioning her right to exist as a member of the International Community. I would object to any such use being made of it. I also express my expectation and hope that the UN Human Rights Council will treat all violations of humanitarian law, no matter by who committed, in an even- handed manner and hold all members of the United Nations to the same standards.

No wonder Israel didn't cooperat7e with him. If he isn't "aware" of the campaign of delegimization based on his report, then how could he possibly used the material Israel could have provided ("Had Israel provided us with credible information to respond to the allegations we received they would have been given appropriate consideration and could potentially have influenced our findings") in a fiar and sensible fashion?

Aw, he's just goldstoning us.

Goldstone-Synagogue Update

SA ZIONIST FEDERATION
MEDIA RELEASE
The SAZF and Judge Richard Goldstone
16 April 2010


The SAZF wishes to clarify that discussions were held with the Sandton Synagogue regarding the forthcoming barmitzvah of the grandson of Judge Richard Goldstone, and agreement was reached between the parties that no comments would be made until after the celebration.

Contrary to distorted media reports and false blog accusations, the SAZF states unequivocally that at no time was there any suggestion raised by any party that Judge Goldstone should be “barred” or “banned” from entering the synagogue.



Issued on behalf of:

Avrom Krengel

Chairman: South African Zionist Federation

Just can't keep your mouths shut, eh?


More:


15 April 2010

Dear All

We would like to set the record straight and bring you in line with what has actually transpired regarding Judge Richard Goldstone.

The South African Zionist Federation met with the Beth Din and Chief Rabbi Goldstein to voice their concern of the community’s feelings of anger at Judge Goldstone and his presence in the Sandton Shul that would result in an almost certain barrage of protestors on the day of his grandson’s Barmitzvah.

The Beth Din spoke with the Sandton Shul who in turn called a Shul committee meeting. The Sandton Shul then met with the family of the Barmitzvah boy to explained their thoughts and feelings on this issue.

The media has reported erroneously that Judge Goldstone was banned from the Sandton Shul. This is absolutely not true. The Shul gave the family the option to either hold the Barmitzvah at the Shul and face the almost certain protests or to have the ceremony elsewhere. The family opted for the first choice and we assume they persuaded the Judge not to attend the Shul services as they did not want this important simcha to be tainted by protests of any sort.

Yours faithfully

JULIE BERMAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR




- - -

On Goldstone's Grandson's Bar Mitzva

I received this note:

Re - Goldstone

I understand that all the members of Sandton shul in Johannesburg declared that they would walk out of the shul if Richard Soldstone was given an aliya at his grandson's barmitzvah. As a result of that, the arrangement was made that Richard Goldstone would not attend his grandson's barmitzvah in South Africa.

That was based on a phone call to South Africa this evening.

Civilian Bus Raked With....American Gunfire

American troops raked a large passenger bus with gunfire near Kandahar on Monday morning, killing and wounding civilians, and igniting angry anti-American demonstrations in a city where winning over Afghan support is pivotal to the war effort. The shooting...killed as many as five civilians and wounded 18...

Anyone seen or heard of Richard Goldstone?

Can He Prove He's A Zionist?

A real card-carrying Zionist?

1.

Nicole Goldstone, the daughter of Richard Goldstone, whose report on Operation Cast Lead alleged that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza, maintained on Wednesday that her father "is a Zionist and loves Israel."

2.

You've been described as a friend of Israel, a Zionist. Is that accurate?

I'm certainly a friend of Israel. I don't mind being called a Zionist; it depends on the definition.

3.

...there is a great piece about Goldstone by Claudia Braude in the upcoming Forward. It sets the record straight about his own relationship with Judaism and Israel:

Goldstone is proud of his Jewish identity...A president emeritus of World ORT...he also serves on the Hebrew University of Jersulem’s [sic] board of governors.

...“I’ve been involved with Israel since I can remember,” Goldstone told the Forward. “My mother was very active in the women’s Zionist movement.” His daughter, Nicole, lived in Israel...

4.

As a travesty of justice, the person leading this UN team - to investigate whether the Jewish state had violated international law, was himself chosen by the UN from the very ranks of the Jewish People - the South African Jew Richard Goldstone.

_________________________


UPDATE


Have been contacted and informed:

"Richard and his wife were members of a group called the Younger JNF in Jhb, in the late sixties and early seventies. This was a Zionist movement for young marrieds. After that he became very involved with Ort."

JNF?

Well, either he was an early environmentalist or pirated away Arab land by planting trees. But, JNF is so Zionist-lite that we can understand his statement above, #2, to imply that Zionism need not be defined as anything really political.

The Blind Leading The Blind - With Their Eyes Closed

Here is what passes for an example of the intelligence of a British Member of Parliament:

Martin Linton (Battersea) (Lab): ...Members as I consider this to be a vital debate on the Goldstone report and the Government's attitude to it before the vote in the United Nations General Assembly next month and, possibly, in the Security Council the month after.

As one of the few people who have read the report from cover to cover, I regard it as one of the most thorough and thoughtful I have ever read, and a model of even-handedness. I do not say that the original motion before the Human Rights Council was even-handed because it referred only to Israel...

I was one of the first group of MPs to enter Gaza after the military operations in February, along with my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Northfield (Richard Burden) and the hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr. Davey). We saw many of the same things and spoke to many of the same people as the mission. Our accounts were listened to, but we did not have the time or resources to cross-check every fact and assess the reliability of every witness. Richard Goldstone did so with meticulous care. I do not know whether to be surprised to discover that all the horrors that we could hardly believe were true.

Martin,



they weren't true.

You were goldstoned.


Martin, go here to read.



(Kippah tip: MP)

Goldstone Once Upon A Time

What report of an inquiry into a country's activities was described as

a rubbish bin

that its achievements

are debatable

that it

was criticised for dragging the judiciary into political controversy

and that it

amounts to little more than a demonstration of the inadequacy of judges

and that the report

will be seen by many as evidence that his much vaunted judicial commission of inquiry has failed dismally.

Are you thinking of Richard Goldstone's Gaza Inquiry?

You are but half correct.

Goldstone - yes.

Gaza - no.

The report was "The interim report on criminal political violence by elements within the South African Police, the KwaZulu Police and the Inkatha Freedom Party" from 1994.

Oh, and that was The Guardian's descriptions.

Read Hillel Neuer.

Goldstone Goes "Out-Camera"; Goldstones Criticism

Camera challenged Goldstone to specifically respond to selected specific questions but he refused:

UPDATE: Justice Goldstone "Answers" CAMERA's Letter

Dec. 7, 2009 — Justice Goldstone has consistently tried to defend his eponymous report from criticism by claiming that "no one has been able to show any error of substance in the report nor any of its findings" (see, for example, South Africa's Sunday Times, Nov. 15), but when faced directly with the above questions, how did he respond?

In answer to a follow-up call by CAMERA on Dec. 7th about whether he had received our letter, Justice Goldstone responded:

Dear Ms. Hollander,

I confirm receipt of your letter. I have no intention of responding to your open letter.

Sincerely,
Richard Goldstone

In the same type of double standard that typifies the report, Justice Goldstone refuses himself to answer questions or provide clarification about the substance of his mission's findings, yet slams Israel for having refused to cooperate with or answer the questions of his investigating team.

The real question now is how long can Justice Goldstone continue to hide behind the deceptive argument that no one has addressed the substance or findings of the report?

Attack on Civilians - Goldstone, Where Are You?

This photograph



was entitled: 'A Palestinian youth throws a concrete block towards Israeli police and civilians' shot by Warrick Page/Getty Images found here.

Would Goldstone call that, what? A war crime?

Goldstone, where are you when we need you?

An Example of "Goldstoning": US Congress = Hamas

From an interview with Richard Goldstone by Bill Moyer:

BILL MOYERS: What did you see with your own eyes when you went there?

...RICHARD GOLDSTONE:....We had a look, for example, at the legislative assembly. Now the legislative assembly consists of members of Hamas in the majority, but also opposition parties. And certainly, as we understand international law, international humanitarian law, that to bomb the legislative assembly is unlawful. It's not a military target, it's a civilian target. I mean, to give an example closer to home, if the United States is at war it would be legitimate to bomb the Pentagon; I would suggest it would be illegitimate to bomb the Congress...

It's A Matter of "Philosophy" For Goldstone

Judge Richard Goldstone in that conference call with Rabbis:-

I'm critical of the Israeli government and the leaders of the IDF. I understand the position of the footsoldier; they take instructions, and pretty much are affected by the philosophy that is applied to them.

Goldstone, that philosophy is called defending Israel, its citizens and property from years of terror.

The damage that shocked you was because that's where Hamas hid, from where they fired their rockets and where they stored them. And in the main, the Gazan population agreed with all that.

Your report?

Full of it:-


And see my comments with the Rabbi, here.

Goldstone Continues To Goldstone

He writes in today's JPost:

I did not anticipate that the IDF would have targeted civilians and civilian objects. I did not anticipate seeing the vast destruction of the economic infrastructure of Gaza including its agricultural lands, industrial factories, water supply and sanitation works. These are not military targets.

To write that, he must be either a fool, or he doesn't understand war or he is clueless as to Hamas rules and customs (or he is part of the evil system) - not to mention how Germany was defeated in World War II.

He continues to goldstone us.