According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, Judge Richard Goldstone, believes bringing war criminals to justice stems from the lessons of the Holocaust. He delivered a lecture in 2000 at Jerusalem's Yakar: Center for Tradition and Creativity. The lecture was attended by former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak. The Israeli jurist introduced Goldstone as "a dear friend" with "very deep ties to Israel." Goldstone, in turn, said Barak was his hero and inspiration.
In the Jerusalem lecture, concerning international efforts to bring war criminals to justice, Goldstone said the Holocaust was "the worst war crime in the world." The Judge said "the perception of war crimes against humanity should resonate differently to Jewish ears, in light of how the Holocaust shaped conventions relevant to the subject." Goldstone added that as a jurist, he "viewed the Holocaust as a unique occurrence because of how it affected judicial protocol on war, as well as international and humanitarian judicial approaches." He also said that, "The laws that had been in place before the Holocaust were not equipped to deal with crimes of the Holocaust's scale and therefore sought to define a new crime, which they labeled a crime against humanity."
In many respects the criticism that Judge Goldstone's report leveled at Israel was unexpected. When Goldstone was appointed in April, 2009 to lead a United Nations inquiry into Israel's war in Gaza, some initial reports noted with approval his Jewish background and his strong ties to Israel. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency pointed out that he was a governor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Others reported that the judge's daughter speaks fluent Hebrew and had lived in Israel for a number of years.
With the publication, however, of Judge Goldstone's report, which was highly critical of Israel and Hamas, the tone changed. The internet filled up with lurid denunciations of him as a "self-hating Jew" who "should go back to South Africa." Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government had refused to co-operate with the UN Inquiry, dismissed the report as a "kangaroo court." These were harsh words for the judicial findings of one of the world's most celebrated jurists.
In the early 1990s Judge Goldstone led the investigation into the misdeeds of the South African security forces that many expected to be a whitewash of the crimes committed under the Apartheid regime. However, the thoroughness and even handedness of his investigation helped smooth the transition from an apartheid state to democracy.
On "Operation Cast Lead," the Israel code name for the attack on Gaza, Goldstone concluded that Israeli officers should face "individual criminal responsibility" for breaches of the laws of war. The Inquiry also found that there was a "systematic" Israeli policy of destroying food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and homes in order to "make the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population." Goldstone wrote that Israel's virtual blockade of the Gaza Strip, allowing in only the minimum necessary to sustain life, was "collective punishment intentionally inflicted."
Here is an example of an attack published in The Jerusalem Post:
The exploitation of Judge Goldstone's Jewish background by our enemies intensifies our obligation to confront the enemy within - renegade Jews - including Israelis who stand at the vanguard of global efforts to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state. Such odious Jews can be traced back to apostates during the Middle Ages who fabricated blood libels and vile distortions of Jewish religious practice for Christian anti-Semites to incite hatred which culminated in massacres. It was in response to these renegades that the herem (excommunication) was introduced . . .
Israel prides itself on being the only country in the region in which genuine freedom of expression reigns supreme. But it is also a country under siege, surrounded by neighbors seeking its destruction and confronted by an ever-hostile global community. To tolerate such abominations in the name of freedom of expression is taking an ideal to a lunatic extreme. Besides, it is hard to visualize the authorities adopting such a laissez faire approach had the offenders been racists, fascists or even radical right-wing extremists.
In fact, when senior academics like Ben-Gurion University's Neve Gordon, call Israel an "apartheid state" and encourage the world to boycott Israeli institutions, they are the ones abusing academic freedom.
It is thus high time for the Knesset to set up a non-partisan commission to recommend legislation to deny tenure at state-sponsored institutions to those indulging in such activities.
The rot has extended to the Diaspora, especially Europe and has also affected the United States. Highly vocal Jewish groups like the recently created J Street describe themselves as 'Zionist' but their prime objective is to pressure the US government to use "tough love" against Israel - a euphemism for demanding that the Jewish state make further unilateral concessions to neighbors pledged to its annihilation.
In the past two weeks alone, a host of new anti-Israeli initiatives were reported. In Toronto, Jews were at the forefront of a campaign to boycott Israeli films at a film festival because the anniversary of Tel Aviv - 'built on the destroyed villages of Palestinians' - was being celebrated; two Israeli women who evaded national service are conducting a North American campus tour under the auspices of 'Jewish Voice for Peace' to persuade students to intensify their role in the "resistance movement"; in San Francisco the local Jewish Federation is providing funds for a film festival which promotes the vilest anti-Israel films; radical Rabbi Michael Lerner invited a woman who justifies suicide bombings to address his synagogue on Yom Kippur; and so on.
IM EIN ani li mi li? If we are not for ourselves, who will be? We are engaged in a battle against fiendish enemies committed to our destruction. The Israeli government must now take steps to neutralize the impact of renegade Jews who present themselves as legitimate alternative Jewish viewpoints. Such an initiative by a country which provides genuine democratic rights to all its citizens, including Arabs, could hardly be categorized as eradicating freedom of expression. It would rather represent a highly overdue effort to exorcise such odious groups from the mainstream and expose them as unrepresentative fringe groups with no standing.
While the UN Commission of Inquiry was widely attacked in Israel more than a few Israeli intellectuals and writers supported Judge Goldstone's Commission's finding. Here is an op-ed written by columnist Larry Derfner that was published in The Jerusalem Post in support of Judge Richard Goldstone's UN Commission of Inquiry findings:
In the three years and three months between our disengagement from Gaza and the start of Operation Cast Lead, 28 Israelis were killed by rockets, bombs and bullets from Gaza.
In the Jerusalem lecture, concerning international efforts to bring war criminals to justice, Goldstone said the Holocaust was "the worst war crime in the world." The Judge said "the perception of war crimes against humanity should resonate differently to Jewish ears, in light of how the Holocaust shaped conventions relevant to the subject." Goldstone added that as a jurist, he "viewed the Holocaust as a unique occurrence because of how it affected judicial protocol on war, as well as international and humanitarian judicial approaches." He also said that, "The laws that had been in place before the Holocaust were not equipped to deal with crimes of the Holocaust's scale and therefore sought to define a new crime, which they labeled a crime against humanity."
In many respects the criticism that Judge Goldstone's report leveled at Israel was unexpected. When Goldstone was appointed in April, 2009 to lead a United Nations inquiry into Israel's war in Gaza, some initial reports noted with approval his Jewish background and his strong ties to Israel. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency pointed out that he was a governor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Others reported that the judge's daughter speaks fluent Hebrew and had lived in Israel for a number of years.
With the publication, however, of Judge Goldstone's report, which was highly critical of Israel and Hamas, the tone changed. The internet filled up with lurid denunciations of him as a "self-hating Jew" who "should go back to South Africa." Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government had refused to co-operate with the UN Inquiry, dismissed the report as a "kangaroo court." These were harsh words for the judicial findings of one of the world's most celebrated jurists.
On "Operation Cast Lead," the Israel code name for the attack on Gaza, Goldstone concluded that Israeli officers should face "individual criminal responsibility" for breaches of the laws of war. The Inquiry also found that there was a "systematic" Israeli policy of destroying food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and homes in order to "make the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population." Goldstone wrote that Israel's virtual blockade of the Gaza Strip, allowing in only the minimum necessary to sustain life, was "collective punishment intentionally inflicted."
Here is an example of an attack published in The Jerusalem Post:
The exploitation of Judge Goldstone's Jewish background by our enemies intensifies our obligation to confront the enemy within - renegade Jews - including Israelis who stand at the vanguard of global efforts to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state. Such odious Jews can be traced back to apostates during the Middle Ages who fabricated blood libels and vile distortions of Jewish religious practice for Christian anti-Semites to incite hatred which culminated in massacres. It was in response to these renegades that the herem (excommunication) was introduced . . .
Israel prides itself on being the only country in the region in which genuine freedom of expression reigns supreme. But it is also a country under siege, surrounded by neighbors seeking its destruction and confronted by an ever-hostile global community. To tolerate such abominations in the name of freedom of expression is taking an ideal to a lunatic extreme. Besides, it is hard to visualize the authorities adopting such a laissez faire approach had the offenders been racists, fascists or even radical right-wing extremists.
In fact, when senior academics like Ben-Gurion University's Neve Gordon, call Israel an "apartheid state" and encourage the world to boycott Israeli institutions, they are the ones abusing academic freedom.
It is thus high time for the Knesset to set up a non-partisan commission to recommend legislation to deny tenure at state-sponsored institutions to those indulging in such activities.
The rot has extended to the Diaspora, especially Europe and has also affected the United States. Highly vocal Jewish groups like the recently created J Street describe themselves as 'Zionist' but their prime objective is to pressure the US government to use "tough love" against Israel - a euphemism for demanding that the Jewish state make further unilateral concessions to neighbors pledged to its annihilation.
In the past two weeks alone, a host of new anti-Israeli initiatives were reported. In Toronto, Jews were at the forefront of a campaign to boycott Israeli films at a film festival because the anniversary of Tel Aviv - 'built on the destroyed villages of Palestinians' - was being celebrated; two Israeli women who evaded national service are conducting a North American campus tour under the auspices of 'Jewish Voice for Peace' to persuade students to intensify their role in the "resistance movement"; in San Francisco the local Jewish Federation is providing funds for a film festival which promotes the vilest anti-Israel films; radical Rabbi Michael Lerner invited a woman who justifies suicide bombings to address his synagogue on Yom Kippur; and so on.
IM EIN ani li mi li? If we are not for ourselves, who will be? We are engaged in a battle against fiendish enemies committed to our destruction. The Israeli government must now take steps to neutralize the impact of renegade Jews who present themselves as legitimate alternative Jewish viewpoints. Such an initiative by a country which provides genuine democratic rights to all its citizens, including Arabs, could hardly be categorized as eradicating freedom of expression. It would rather represent a highly overdue effort to exorcise such odious groups from the mainstream and expose them as unrepresentative fringe groups with no standing.
While the UN Commission of Inquiry was widely attacked in Israel more than a few Israeli intellectuals and writers supported Judge Goldstone's Commission's finding. Here is an op-ed written by columnist Larry Derfner that was published in The Jerusalem Post in support of Judge Richard Goldstone's UN Commission of Inquiry findings:
In the three years and three months between our disengagement from Gaza and the start of Operation Cast Lead, 28 Israelis were killed by rockets, bombs and bullets from Gaza.
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