October 2, 2009

Goldstone leaves many stones unturned

Yaacov Lozowick watched Christiane Amanpour's interview of Judge Goldstone. (video available) He observed:

The second is his comparison of the Israeli judicial system and that of the Hamas: Israel's is secretive and not reliable. Hamas, on the other hand, has a fine legal system. Of course, he adds, if they wish to be reinforced by international outfits, that can also happen.

Surely you are thinking that the internationally respected Judge Goldstone didn't say that Hamas had a fine legal system. Well actually he did. Here's Richard Landes's transcript, (read it along with the pertinent fisking):

CA: We talked about each side conducting their own investigations; Israel has its justice, the wheels of justice that turn. [What] would you expect really that you could get out of Hamas in Gaza.

RG: Well Hamas has courts open. There are courts in Gaza. People are convicted. Some people are, regrettably in my view, are sentenced to be executed. But if Hamas hasn't got the sufficient resources, hasn't got sufficient lawyers and judges, which I doubt, I've no doubt that the international community will fill any gap that there may be in such an absence of resources.

If you read any significant portion of Judge Goldstone's report you will understand that he wasn't looking for the truth, he was looking to confirm his (uninformed) conclusions.

It wouldn't have taken Judge Goldstone and his commission much effort to discover how Hamas's fine judiciary works. All they had to do was to find a New York Times article from December 29, 2008 described Hamas's fine "open" courts:

On Monday, Dr. Ashour was not the only official in charge. Armed Hamas militants in civilian clothes roamed the halls. Asked their function, they said it was to provide security. But there was internal bloodletting under way.

In the fourth-floor orthopedic section, a woman in her late 20s asked a militant to let her see Saleh Hajoj, her 32-year-old husband. She was turned away and left the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Hajoj was carried out by young men pretending to transfer him to another ward. As he lay on the stretcher, he was shot in the left side of the head.

Mr. Hajoj, like five others killed at the hospital this way in 24 hours, was accused of collaboration with Israel. He had been in the central prison awaiting trial by Hamas judges; when Israel destroyed the prison on Sunday he and the others were transferred to the hospital. But their trials were short-circuited.

What is "open" to Judge Goldstone, is called "summary execution" in the rest of the world.

There is quite a bit that Judge Goldstone ignored. And of course this article, in addition to demonstrating the falsity of his own impression of Hamas's legal system, supported two more contentions of Israel's that Goldstone refused to acknowledge.

1) Hamas terrorists don't wear uniforms.
2) Hamas terrorists operate from hospitals.

Judge Goldstone worked from a premise that all destruction caused by Israel was arbitrary and/or unnecessary. Anything that contradicted that premise was disregarded.

The good judge was so intent on "Goldstoning" Israel he ignored the truth.

Crossposted on Yourish.

Posted by SoccerDad at October 2, 2009 2:09 AM
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Comments

Hamas, good... Israel, bad. That's the bottom line in Goldstone's travesty of an inquiry. I just summed up in four words what Goldstone spent 575 pages doing. For Goldstone, the fraudulent submissions of a brutal dictatorship were far more convincing than the honest presentations of a democratic society. Which only underlines the intellectual vacuity and moral bankruptcy of the entire exercise, which had as its political objective, the delegitimization of the State Of Israel. This is the legacy... the stones turned over that Goldstone has left the world.

Posted by: NormanF at October 2, 2009 3:46 AM

The stone unturned is the one that Goldstone crawled out from under.

Posted by: Terry, Eilat - Israel at October 2, 2009 3:53 AM

I will never understand people with Jewish sounding names that can't be Jewish like Goldstone, Chomsky, Finkelstein, etc. How can they be so hateful of the Jewish Country called Israel yet love those who believe in the same ideology as Adolf Hitler?

After all that has happened to us in the last 70 years, why turn our backs on a miraculous country like Israel? It is not perfect but it is far better than what it was under Arab/Muslim control.

Posted by: Hinda at October 2, 2009 12:01 PM

I will never understand people with Jewish sounding names that can't be Jewish like Goldstone, Chomsky, Finkelstein, etc. How can they be so hateful of the Jewish Country called Israel yet love those who believe in the same ideology as Adolf Hitler?

After all that has happened to us in the last 70 years, why turn our backs on a miraculous country like Israel? It is not perfect but it is far better than what it was under Arab/Muslim control.

Posted by: Hinda at October 2, 2009 12:02 PM

Hinda, there have been Jewish anti-Semites throughout history. They are far more dangerous to Jews than the non-Jewish garden variety type. Since they know how to really hurt the Jewish people and give credibility to its enemies' accusations against them. They are the worst kind of Jew to live, breathe and walk upon this earth.

Posted by: NormanF at October 2, 2009 12:07 PM

Israel was founded upon terrorism. Their relentless slaughter of women and kids, Israelis use of human shields, bombings of aid wharehouses, un schools and execution of women and kids holding white flags is just more evidence that this nation of religious extremeists needs to be liquidated. Our nations continued support of such a terrorist hotbed of animals is disgusting.

Posted by: swizzle at October 2, 2009 3:42 PM

Swizzle your a complete moron. Why don't you go live in a Muslim country for a year and you'll find out how "open" their society is. They kill Women for leaving the house without a man and you call Israelis animals. You are the worst kind of ignorant fool. I'm not even jewish, but hearing nonsense like that piss's me off. The CIA should come in at night, take your dumbass away, and dump your ass in Iran with the rest of the anit-semetic lunatics. Your kind really are the scum of the earth.

Posted by: jack at October 2, 2009 4:22 PM

There is no doubt that Israeli is the worst violators of human right next to Egypt. When facts speak louder about the apartheid nature of Israel, the Jewish state and it's supporters always try to blackmail those who criticize their atrocities as anti-Semitic even if she or he is a Jew. What a pathetic liars and a human being with no feeling of humanity. The worst terrorists are IDF and those who support the campaign of total annihilation against the Palestinians. Truelly speaking, even those so called civilian settlers are not civilians and attacks on them is justified, because most of them are armed and seen terrorizing the Palestinians, some time burning their crops, abusing the elderly, womens and children. If anyone is serious about justice, the first step should be telling the Israeli's stop the modern day holocaust against the Palestinians.

Posted by: Burqaa at October 2, 2009 5:24 PM

There is no doubt that Israeli is the worst violators of human right next to Egypt. When facts speak louder about the apartheid nature of Israel, the Jewish state and it's supporters always try to blackmail those who criticize their atrocities as anti-Semitic even if she or he is a Jew. What a pathetic liars and a human being with no feeling of humanity. The worst terrorists are IDF and those who support the campaign of total annihilation against the Palestinians. Truelly speaking, even those so called civilian settlers are not civilians and attacks on them is justified, because most of them are armed and seen terrorizing the Palestinians, some time burning their crops, abusing the elderly, womens and children. If anyone is serious about justice, the first step should be telling the Israeli's stop the modern day holocaust against the Palestinians.

Posted by: Burqaa at October 2, 2009 5:24 PM

Burqaa, I have little or no chance of really reachng you, but for anyone reading this, there is so much about your post that is wrong (re: propagandistic) that is requires a modicum of reply. Toward that end, I'll deal with the 'holocaust' of the Palestinians. Since 1948, the Palestinian population has gone from 1.3 million to somewhere between 4.5 million and 9.0 million. During the REAL holocaust, the Jewish population of Europe went from 9 million to 3 million (worldwide 17 million to 11 million). To this day the Jewish population has never recovered and stands around 12.8 million. So where is this holocaust of which you speak?

Let me make this clear: during the Holocaust the Nazis killed an average of 4,100 Jews EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR FOUR YEARS.

Arguably the worst month of Palestinian casualties that has ever occurred is what just happened in operation Cast Lead where 1,400 people (I won't get into a combatant/civilian debate) were killed over a few weeks. Not in one day, not many times..... once, and after Hamas lobbed thousands of rockets into Israel.

I've done the calculations and the so-called Palestinian holocaust, at its worst, over the past 61 years, would be between 2 and 5 days of the REAL Holocaust. The REAL Holocaust lasted 1500 days. So please stop with this Palestinian holocaust nonsense. It belittles both the real tragedy of the Holocaust and the genuine suffering of Palestinians who have died or otherwise had to cope with this decades long conflict.

Posted by: aewhistory at October 2, 2009 5:46 PM

Yes, we so often hear from ignorant, hateful douchebag's like burqaa and swizzle about a supposed "genocide" being perpetrated against the Arabs of Gaza and Judea and Samaria by Israel. Yet since when does a genocide leave the supposed victimized people with an INCREASE in their population? Like so much other bilge spewing from the mouths of anti-Semites, there is no logic to this accusation.

Posted by: Laura at October 2, 2009 6:46 PM

Let's see. The balance of power is overwhelmingly in favor of Israel. The entity tthat tries to minimize casualties is Israel. The country that offered concessions in the last peace process is Israel.
Even the country where a large portion of their citizens keep trying to give more to re start the 'peace process' is Israel.
Hard to make a case they are terrrorist. Because the terrrorists aren't anhilated.

ps. Not a Jew. Not even a Christian. Just like to keep a little logic in the process
pps. What's Mrs Arafat doing with her millios? Helping the poor?

Posted by: corwin at October 2, 2009 7:43 PM

Where does Goldstone say Hamas has a good legal system? All he says is that they have courts where people are convicted. Soccer Dad get your head out of your ass and plug into the world. Let's see if you actually post this.

Posted by: Moshe at October 2, 2009 9:11 PM
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