The Haaretz journalist Aluf Benn is somewhere in the middle of the Israeli road — nowhere near his outspoken fellow reporters like Amira Hass and Gideon Levy. Which makes his recent observations in the Guardian about Judge Goldstone’s alleged regrets even more telling.
Benn makes an important concession; without the Goldstone report, Israel would have done absolutely nothing:
. . . it’s doubtful whether the Israeli inquiries — few of which have led to indictments and convictions — would have been carried out without his report and its threat of referral to the Hague.
Benn adds that Goldstone is still useful:
. . . the fear of another incriminating report serves as a powerful deterrent against a sequel.
Both Benn, and Goldstone in his Washington Post article, recognize that the Israeli military self-investigation has not produced many indictments so far, to say nothing of convictions. Like the two of them, we will be waiting and watching.
