Richard Goldstone regrets a report that accused Israel of war crimes. In an article published Friday in the Washington Post, titled “Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes,” the South African judge wrote: “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.”
Goldstone wrote that now he knows that the final report by the UN committee of independent experts, headed by Justice Mary McGowan Davis determined that “Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza while the de facto authorities (Hamas) have not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.”
The South African judge noted that while the crimes committed by Hamas during Operation Cast Lead, including the indiscriminately rocket fire toward civilian targets were intentional, “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.”
Goldstone agreed with the conclusions of the Israeli investigation into the IDF shelling of the al-Simouni family home that killed some 29 people.
“The shelling of the home was apparently the consequence of an Israeli commander’s erroneous interpretation of a drone image, and an Israeli officer is under investigation for having ordered the attack,” he wrote in the article.
Goldstone said he regrets that the “fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes,” adding that “Israel’s lack of cooperation with our investigation meant that we were not able to corroborate how many Gazans killed were civilians and how many were combatants.”
The author of the controversial report stressed that he indicated from the very beginning that Israel’s cooperation would have been welcomed.
“The purpose of the Goldstone Report was never to prove a foregone conclusion against Israel. I insisted on changing the original mandate adopted by the Human Rights Council, which was skewed against Israel,” he wrote.
In his article, Goldstone denounced the murder of the Fogel family in the West Bank settlement of Itamar last month, saying “The Human Rights Council should condemn the inexcusable and cold-blooded recent slaughter of a young Israeli couple and three of their small children in their beds.
To conclude, the judge wrote, “Our report has led to numerous ‘lessons learned’ and policy changes,” adding that “regrettably, there has been no effort by Hamas in Gaza to investigate the allegations of its war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
(Source: Ynet)
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13 Responses
Cynic that I am, I reckon Goldstone is facing something & wants redemption…his own mortality, maybe? I know FOR A FACT he was asked to try to help with the Rubashkin case, but he refused. He had a chance to make amends for the tzar he caused the Jewish people within the last 2 years ago. Why now?
Try a 12 step program, Judge. There are millions of Israelis you need to reach out to, not to mention the families of those murdered since your nefarious “report”, of which you seemed, at the time, to be inordinately proud.
What a jerk. You regret it now to late. I don’t forgive you. Your a typical leftist self hating liberal jew.
Gehenim is too good for this piece of filth.
I do not believe a word that comes out of this person’s mouth. However, even if he is telling the truth he did so much damage it is possible there is teshuvah for it.
He is part of the group of “enlightened, progressive, apologetic and self hating liberal jews. He turned his back on his people and slandered them. He said damaging lies in the name of being fair and unbiased. He singlehandedly isolated Israel and emboldened the hamas terrorist. He mentions that the UN should condemn the murder of the Fogel family, yet he himself has a hand in it- yes, there is blood on his hands. After the fact ,reality may have sunk in. But his “repenatance” is too little too late. Let this be a lesson to others like him.
I mean there is no teshuvah for it.
Wow such ahavas yisroel. Last I checked sharei t’shuvah don’t close so easy…
Whether or not Tshuvah is possible has nothing to do with us. Leave that up to H’ Who is B”H a lot more compassionate than the YW readers.
Whilst the judge’s report did a lot of damage, and I doubt his retraction will get much attention in the world press, I commend the judge for his courage to admit that he made a mistake.
The man was malicious and his actions likely resulted in the death of Jews and will result in the death of Jews in the future. Kol ha mechalal shem shamayim ain lo teshuva.
Whether Hashem accepts his teshuvah is not up to us, but he is a wicked man.
I think Israel should sue him for Libel.
I agree with yswo. The Goldstone report was considered authoritative. It portrayed Israel to the world as indiscriminate killers of innocent civilians.(while in reality they have a more compassionate army than those of all their detractors) This is wholesale chillul sheim shamayim. You are right Imanov-his retraction will get about as much attention in the media as the Fogel family got.The only teshuvah for being mechallel sheim shamayim is to be mikadesh sheim shamayim to a degree that is equivalent to the chillul. I doubt he is up to the task.
TOO LITTLE TOO LATE!!!
Dear a Jew,
We are own worst enemy. Jews who aid & abet those who seek to destroy us, whether they actually throw the bombs or not, are worse than the obvious enemy. I do not have Ahavas Yisrael for a sonei Yisrael (IMO he doesn’t deserve any) – sadly, I think this is what he is. He did such an evil thing: he empowered our enemies & made attacks like Itamar more possible. NOW he regrets it???? Who’s he kidding?
Sorry judge, we do not forgive you. All the typical leftists loved quoting the goldstone report as it appeared somewhat credible. Your a joke