Tony Judt wrote the following (for Huffpo) on behalf of a Jews Say No petition for Jews supporting the Goldstone report:
Justice Goldstone and the Jews
We Jews should be very proud of Richard Goldstone. In an ancient tradition of Jewish self-questioning and uncomfortable truth-telling, the author of the recent report from the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict has braved personal vilification and institutional mendacity to describe the crimes committed by Israeli forces in the course of their invasion of Gaza in December 2008. To be sure, the Goldstone Report also itemizes the crimes of Hamas, notably in its campaign of rocket firing into Israel. But the scale of human rights abuses by Israel vastly outdoes anything Hamas could hope to have achieved: Israeli civilian victims of Hamas rocket attacks numbered less than ten. The attack on Gaza by the IDF resulted in at least 1,100 Palestinian civilian deaths. The major perpetrator of human rights abuses in this conflict is without question the State of Israel, and Justice Goldstone records as much.
That the Israel of Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen to conduct an international campaign against Justice Goldstone and his report need not surprise us. Israel refused to cooperate with the UN investigation; long before its conclusions were published, Netanyahu had set in motion a campaign to deny and denigrate them. More dispiriting, and of greater political consequence, is the pitiful and humiliating response of the Obama Administration. The “fierce urgency of now” apparently required that Washington join Tel Aviv in discrediting the Goldstone Report, and with it the UN inquiry. This response is of course in keeping with America’s long-standing determination to protect Israel against the consequences of its actions at home and abroad; but the universal international condemnation of the destruction of Gaza renders the Obama Administration’s response peculiarly self-defeating – everyone knows what happened in Gaza, so Washington’s collusion in covering it up merely draws further attention to the discrediting of U.S. foreign policy and moral standing brought about by our unhealthy relationship with Israel.
There is a special irony to the public slandering of Justice Goldstone now under way. In the first place he is not only Jewish but has close family links to Israel and the Zionist ideal. Secondly, Richard Goldstone has an impeccable resumé as a critic of racism, prejudice and repression – most notably as an active opponent for many years of the apartheid regime in his native South Africa. During the ‘90s he served as Chief Prosecutor at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals dealing with human rights abuses, crimes and genocide in the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. It would be hard to fictionalize a more convincing biography for an engaged and ethically uncompromising jurist in the great tradition of Jewish political activism. Goldstone’s standing in the world will only rise as a consequence of Israel’s short-sighted attempts to discredit the man, the report and the facts. That our own government has chosen to join in this unworthy exercise should be a source of deep embarrassment and shame.
Please join me and Jews from all over the world in signing the Jewish Appeal Letter in Support of the Goldstone Report written by Jews Say No an organization in NY.
Goldstone’s standing in the world will only rise as a consequence of Israel’s short-sighted attempts to discredit the man, the report and the facts. That our own government has chosen to join in this unworthy exercise should be a source of deep embarrassment and shame. In short, Obama’s standing in the world will only go down. And rightfully so. This Obama is not a man. He’s a boy. Who’s boy? Judge for yourself.
I don’t really like this, it’s too jewish-centric and self-congratulatory. Would Judt write (not about Judt!) that someone euphemises colonialism and anti-arab bigotry “in the great tradition of Jewish political activism” — and that tradition is at least as strong as the one Judt is referring to. I also don’t like reference to the ” close family links to Israel and the Zionist ideal”, because Gaza is the concrete expression of the Zionist ideal, as Judt should and perhaps does know. This is the sort of anti-Israel polemic we need to leave behind.
Note that this Judt article was published on Oct. 29, 2009 – more than three months ago – and as of this morning there are only 948 signatures on the petition he was trying to promote. How about it, other Jewish readers of this site? Who knows what good these petitions do, but since it only takes a few seconds to sign, there’s not much to lose.
Goldstone’s role is finished. He no longer has any sort of authority. He should keep quiet because he is only damaging our cause, one example of this is when he said that the UN was politically biased in commissioning the report in the first place. The second would be when he said that Chinkin wouldn’t have been allowed to serve on the commission if it was any other type of report due to her bias.
Most Jews see Goldstone as a traitor and he should keep his mouth shut and let other UN organs handle the report to get the heat and anger off of him specifically.
Wow, what the hell. You keep getting stranger and stranger.
Who do you mean by ‘we’? Who the hell are you? LOL
Stop trolling the blog.
We as in the readers of this website, focusing on Goldstone as a person rather than the reports content has doomed it, and we are simply playing into that.
No, the content of the report – conclusions that contradict Israeli PR/hasbara/etc. – has doomed it.
Not Goldstone.
You are just trying (blatantly) to divide people in the anti-Zionist camp.
Do you think people here don’t realize you’re a troll?
“We as in the readers of this website, focusing on Goldstone as a person…”
We are the ones focusing on Goldstone as a person? All I see is a list of perfect qualifications to make this report?
Jewish parents! Take warning by this unfortunate’s state! Don’t let your children get started on ziocaine! You want they should end up like this nebbish, BSDNOW?
On a side-note…
For non-trolls, here are some interesting reports. Google the following (I apologize for the way the text is formatted):
ISRAEL/GAZA
OPERATION ‘CAST LEAD’:
22 DAYS OF DEATH AND
DESTRUCTION
THE 2006 LEBANON CAMPAIGN
AND THE FUTURE OF WARFARE:
IMPLICATIONS FOR ARMY AND DEFENSE
POLICY
Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories
Rain of Fire
Israel’s Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza
The Israel Project’s 2009
GLOBAL LANGUAGE
DICTIONARY
HAMAS AND ISRAEL:
CONFLICTING STRATEGIES OF GROUP-BASED
POLITICS
A “traitor” to what, exactly? Are you saying it is every Jew’s obligation to lie for his fellow Jews? Gosh, now there’s a tradition which will endear us to mankind!
I’m saying most Jews see Goldstone as a traitor. I’m not condoning that, explaining that, or justifying that, it’s simply the way it is. Goldstone is seen as a self-hating Jew, traitor to the Jewish nation, liar, biased, and only interested in personal gain and prestige.
That is why it’s stupid to call it the Goldstone report, why call it that? Call it the Gaza report and leave the much hated Goldstone out of it, every time he talks he puts his foot in his mouth and now the report is doomed in a large part because of him.
“I’m saying most Jews see Goldstone as a traitor”
You puilled that right out of your ass, and don’t have anything to support that except your fevered imagination.
And what personal gain and prestige is Goldstone acquiring out of this?
Please enlighten us!
This is exactly the problem, debating Goldstone rather than the substance of the report. Is Goldstone a traitor only out for his personal gain? I don’t know! But with so many people suffering why focus on Goldstone? Especially since he is a Zionist. Did you ever consider that is what he wants us to do?
the only person here slandering goldstone is you. there is not debate here at this website about him. take your own advise why don’t you and don’t focus on goldstone and stop perpetuating myths about him being a traitor w/ypour silly ‘I don’t know!’. say something about the report instead.
“I’m saying most Jews see Goldstone as a traitor. ”
I desperately hope that is not true. It would imply that most Jews are so morally corrupt that they think that “support” for Jews is more important than truth, human decency, or any other value.
I am glad that most of the contributors here act as evidence that it is not true.
Wow. Here you are again, but on this thread, you are arguing that Goldstone should shut up (on the “Momzer” thread you wrote: “Actually one thing Goldstone could do is refute some of the claims from the IDF, CAMERA and others in his talks! Why leave it to bloggers to do?“) because “he is only damaging our (LOL) cause“.
You are the proud winner of this week’s Troll of the Week Award.
Shmuel: Are you going to pick a winner every week? I look forward to your choices.
James,
Due to the periodical nature of outrageous troll behaviour, the committee has decided not to stick to a rigid weekly schedule. Phenomena such as self-contradiction however, will almost always be rewarded. Recommendations are welcome.
Besides, cool troll/monster links don’t grow on trees you know. Admittedly, this week’s gargoyle was not up to the committee’s usual standards, and for that we apologise.
Actually, BDSNOW, most REAL Jews see Goldstone as an upstanding person and the report is first rate and as true as they come. I assume you read the summaries Adam has kindly excerpted here. In which case you must surely agree the substance is there – now further supported by recent revelations in the Independent. Face it – Israel deliberately and methodically shot at, bombed and killed civilians. Why they would do that you know as well as I do. Justifying that is the job of the propagansists.
The only people who take umbrage with either the report or Goldstone himself are settler sympathizers, ziocain addicts and plain old trolls. Which is what your job is here. How well you carry it out is another story (hint: it’s closer to a C than a B)
hear, hear for troll of the Week.
Shmuel – looks like the competition is going to get stiffer around here – the committee may need to hand out the awards more often? I think the powers-that-be went for reinforcements (Baruch must have had it – maybe reassigned to freshmen blogs?). Hope edan lasts a while.
Danaa,
I don’t think the term “real Jews” is useful. I don’t like the term when used by Orthodox Jews to denigrate nonOrthodox Jews. I don’t like the term when used by Zionist Jews to denigrate nonZionist Jews. And I don’t like the term when used by a Goldstone defender to denigrate a Goldstone attacker.
A Goldstone attacker, who calls Goldstone a ‘traitor’ and ‘kapo’ and ‘evil man’ is not simply an ‘attacker’. And just because people defend Goldstone from these ridiculous accusations, does not define them as ‘defenders’.
This is a disagreement between people with common sense and pathological liars.
I disagree with ‘real Jews’ too just as that congresswoman, Something Clarke(?), who backed out recently on calling a lift on the Gaza siege, complimented Israel’s PR effort in Haiti as ‘legendary Jewish blah blah’.
She should read about Israel’s philanthropic efforts in Central America sometime. I wonder what she’ll say about ‘Jews’ then.
Tell me, WJ – do you think Goldstone is a ‘kapo’ or ‘evil man’?
It’s like characterizing a Holocaust denier as a ‘dissenter’. When there is overwhelming evidence about the numbers of people who died – some people still technically ‘dissent’. However, we call them idiots, rightfully. Deniers.
Your implication is that there is some parity between Goldstone ‘defender’ and ‘attacker’ – there isn’t.
WJ and Cliff,
The “REAL” designation was tongue-in-cheek response to BDSNOW, who used the term. Kind of like the term “real human beings”, or “real men”, ‘real women’, “real americans” etc. please don’t read too much into it, as I freely confess to having issues with reality designations for any group of which I am a part. Regardless of my issues, you must admit BDSNOW brought the “real troll” boomerang upon himself.
Would it teach him a lesson? would the award get to his head? can Dersh fly?
BSDNOW you are now revealed as a f####ng dum dum, probably paid as a hasbara agent. You have made a total f####ng mess of it, so you should give all those Bank Leumi cheques back.
A “traitor” to the Jews? Gosh, what about Eliot Spitzer, didn’t he go after Madoff?
Another “traitor”?
BSD, I’m so proud now! When those stupid-ass anti-Semite Christians ask me, “What is Judaism all about?” I now have the answer: “The central obligation of Judaism is for one Jew to lie to get another jew, or Jews out of trouble! Don’t you want us around? We have a long tradition of political activism!”
Mooser, you rock.
The hatred that Zionist have for Judaism, and Jewishness for that matter, is boundless, bottomless. Instead of holding those things as near sacred as possible in this profane world, they use it to wipe their ass! Want to get permission to dis-possess the inhabitants from the (British) colonial masters? Easy, use your Judaism! Want to lie, cheat and steal, and murder, hey, no problem, just throw that ol’ Jew-Jew on ‘em and you can get away with it.
All Judaism or Jewishness is to them is an excuse or enabler.
If I wasn’t sputtering about now, I could go on.
How much do the Zionists hate Judaism and Jewishness and Jews to put it to this purpose?
Take a sputter pause, then carry on.
The world needs more righteous indigantion.
Shorter BSD:
“If everyone keeps quiet about Israeli war crimes maybe they will stop committing them. “
I signed the petition but not without misgivings. I wouldn’t have written it that way. Jews have an “ancient tradition of Jewish self-questioning and uncomfortable truth-telling” and should be proud of Goldstone? Are we that special? It does get perilously close to the chosen people myth. As for pride, I admire Goldstone greatly (though not unconditionally), but what gives me the right to be proud of his accomplishments? The fact that we might have common ancestors in the 17th century rather than the 11th? I respect and admire Judt as well, but cannot bask in the glow of his work either.
Still, there is value in Jews speaking up in rejecting the tribal call for condemnation of a brave man who is merely holding up a mirror. And considering that the petition favors giving the Goldstone report the support it deserves, I’m all for it.
“the tribal call”
You know, I’m getting sick of that “tribal” bit, in this sense: a “tribe” seems to be a natural type of social system, where kinship ties (or perceived kinship) predominate over other types of civil associations and political groups. Okay. But there is nothing at all “tribal” in the process by which AIPAC and the others presume to speak for Jews, it’s a well practised system of colonial support whose like you once saw with White South Africa, and Kenya, India, and many other colonies, especially when there is insugency or revolt.. It’s a well practised, modern propaganda and publicity scheme, along with information control and has no relation at all (except for the appearances they invoke) to any “tribal social process.
Their primary deception, now that I think about it, is invoking that tribal chimera.
“tribal,” “kinship”, whatever, it’s just a matter of semantics, not that I’m anti-semantic, mind you
link to youtube.com
But hey guys, Palestinians shouldn’t throw rocks. Right WJ? What a bunch of Uppity Negroes.
Oh and BDS is ‘harmful’. We should subscribe to the Cohen-WJ peace plan.