The hugeness of the Goldstone commission report has a lot to do with Goldstone’s Jewishness. Besides destroying hundreds of Palestinian children, Gaza unsettled the liberal American Jewish community nine months ago, and now Goldstone’s report is reopening the wound. Israeli leaders call the report a "mockery of history" and a "kangaroo court," but I don’t think American Jews will be so dismissive.
Here is Dan Fleshler, deeply disturbed by the report to the point of labeling himself a "self-hating Jew" out of solidarity with Goldstone, "my kind of Jew." Fleshler cites Goldstone’s Zionist credentials and notes that his daughter Nicole lived in Israel. It’s like the good Israel versus the bad Israel, and Fleshler fears the good Israel has lost. Fleshler dismisses Israel’s effort to provide context with a poetic line:
I do know that Israel will have a difficult time discrediting the report by citing the UN’s past transgressions, or insisting that Israel went out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, or explaining how the report neglected to include the “context” for Israel’s actions. White phosphorus provides its own context.
Norman Finkelstein sounds similar themes on Amy Goodman today, saying that the report will crumble the foundations of PEP culture (Progressive Except Palestine):
What’s significant about the report, in my opinion, and what’s significant about what happened in Gaza, I think it marks a major turning point. It’s like the Sharpville massacre in South Africa. Now, Sharpville is not Soweto, but Sharpville was a turning point. Richard Goldstone is a liberal. Richard Goldstone is very supportive of Israel. And it’s now marking the breakup of liberal Jewish support for Israel.
what you’re seeing, especially with the Goldstone report, especially with his stature, especially because he’s Jewish, especially because he’s a liberal, what it’s signaling now, is the breakup of Jewish support and liberal support—and those are basically the same thing—the breakup of liberal Jewish support for Israel.
And here’s Ilene Cohen predicting that hasbara will not be able to counter the rift this report will cause between American Jews and Israeli Jews:
I think the Israeli propaganda blitz will yield very little for Israel. Yes, there will be a lot of noise, but the damage to Israel was already done, in the form of the many people around the world, including in the US and including in the American Jewish community, by the horrors that people saw. I think the Gwen Ifill type of moments–which, after all, were de rigueur in the coverage of the war itself [bending over backwards to give the Israeli side]–will not override the terrible facts of the report, facts that are in keeping with ten or so previous human rights reports, with the Breaking the Silence testimony (never mentioned in the NY Times), and with much journalistic coverage since the war. The Israelis won’t get specific because they simply can’t; there are no answers to the specific charges of which they stand accused. Just listen to Michael Oren recite his script.
Those who now call upon Israel to engage in serious investigations (the commission, Israeli Human rights groups), however well intentioned, are, I believe, grasping at straws. Israel’s Gaza war problem is not a matter of a particular case or two (say, a My Lai or a Falluja). It emcompasses instead every aspect of what Israel did in the war, down to IDF soldiers smearing feces on the wall of people’s homes (that type of thing, of course, is not in the commission report). To "investigate" seriously would entail challenging the very jus ad bellum.I ask myself, what exactly is going on with the Israelis, such that 90 percent of the Jewish population thinks that not only was the war justified but that everything done by Israel was just fine. The 12 Israeli dead constitute a profound national tragedy, whereas the 1300+ Palestinians dead constitute "so what." And as for the destruction wrought through the length and breadth of Gaza, well, they had it coming…It’s a deeply troubling question, because the answer cannot be good.
Jeff Blankfort likes to say that the Israel lobby’s efforts are aimed chiefly at American Jews, to rally them to the cause of Israel. Well, maybe that ain’t working any more.
