A letter to Richard Goldstone

Counterpoint to:

Justice in Gaza
For the equal application of international justice, the perpetrators of serious violations [in Gaza]  must be held to account."
Richard Goldstone
The New York Times
September 17, 2009

Dear Dr. Goldstone,
You have just published one of the most damning condemnations of Israel in the country's modern history. Apart from accusing Israel of war crimes, severe human rights violations, and possibly crimes against humanity, you have shown contempt for Israel's widely respected judicial system (respected even by Israel's Arab neighbors) as well as for the level of freedom and civil liberties enjoyed by its citizens.

Please be aware, Dr. Goldstone, that few in Israel will argue, least of all I, that there is much to criticize in Israel. Israel has never claimed to be a perfect society (which society is?), and in fact, nowhere is there more criticism of Israel than within Israel itself.  Self-criticism has been defined here as a national pastime.
 
The commission of inquiry that you led was established by the United Nations Human Rights Council, an organization described in The London Times as "an international body utterly lacking in credibility or balance" and whose actions were unsupported by the European Union, Canada, Japan, and Switzerland. So we thought we knew what to expect from your investigation.

It was therefore quite interesting to read in The New York Times your explanation of the proceedings that led you to produce and publish such a report.

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A history of Israel in ten minutes

Counterpoint to:

My play is not anti-Semitic
"I find it extraordinary that, because my play talks about the killing of children in Gaza, I am accused of reviving the medieval blood libel that Jews killed Christian children and consumed their blood."

Caryl Churchill
The Independent (London)
February 21, 2009

Consider the movie Gone with the Wind, the American civil war saga, or Lawrence of Arabia, about the legendary British officer who led the Arab revolt against the Turks. They may be great movies, but they are long - more than three hours. Some people don't have the patience or the desire to sit through hours of storytelling. 

Such was my old friend, Dr. Yossi Shiftan, who had a magnificent video library that contained many of the great classics, several of which were only about ten minutes long. Yossi could show you his edited version of High Noon with just the gunfight so you wouldn't have to watch Garry Cooper and Grace Kelly arguing over whether they should get out of town. In his shortened version of Gone with the Wind you could watch Atlanta burn to the ground without having to follow the events that led to the destruction of the city.

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Understanding the 'war crimes' accusations

Counterpoint to:

Israeli attacks on Gaza are war crimes
"Why is the Israeli cause so exceptional that war crimes, committed every day, are routinely forgiven, and even applauded, in the West? Can the reason be racist? Or religious"

Bob Ellis
The Canberra Times (Australia)
January 15, 2009

Bob Ellis, writing in Australia's Canberra Times, believes that Israel is guilty of war crimes and its leaders should be tried by an international tribunal. Ellis predicts that "Tzipi Livni will stand trial soon on a charge at least of collusive multiple manslaughter and will end her days in a fairly comfortable air-conditioned cell in The Hague." Personally, I very much doubt that that will happen, but Ellis is certainly entitled to unleash his imagination.

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Everybody's wrong (except Turkey)!

Counterpoint to:

 Looking past Gaza
"The short-sighted refusal to talk to the Hamas Islamists encouraged Israel to continue and intensify its blockade, provoked Hamas's subsequent increasingly violent response, victimised the population of Gaza, and has made it much harder to stop the fighting once it started."

Simon Tisdall
The Guardian (London)
December 7, 2008

Anyone who has been following the international press over the past two weeks is undoubtedly familiar with the downpour of news reports, opinion pieces, op-eds, editorials, and other commentaries on the war in Gaza that have been virtually dominating much of the world media. While this is certainly not unexpected in the Arab and Islamic press, it is a surprising phenomenon in the European media where it far surpassed the 2006 Lebanon war.

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Do We Need Tough Love from Hillary?

Counterpoint to:

Try tough love, Hillary
"Nobody's been more solidly pro-Israel than Hillary Clinton. But to be effective, she must become a tough taskmaster. That is in the best long-term interest of Israel."

Roger Cohen
The New York Times
December 1, 2008

Columnist Roger Cohen, writing in the New York Times, believes that the next US secretary of state should apply pressure on Israel, and should do so as a friend. Israel, he implies, is incapable of doing what is good for it and therefore needs a friend, such as Hillary Clinton, to force it into acting in its best interest. She must be "a tough taskmaster", opines Cohen.

To some of us this attitude may sound extremely condescending, yet it is not new. The United States has applied pressure on Israel on numerous occasions in the past, and there are some prominent Israelis who share Cohen's view that this is what we now need. 

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Allowing hostile activists into Israel

In April 2003, a 22 year-old British photography student, Tom Hurndall, a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was shot in Gaza by a soldier of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and subsequently died. Simon Block has made a two-hour feature television film about Hurndall, whom he describes as a peace activist. It tells a sad story.

But it is also tells a controversial story, because it exposes the hostile political activism of foreign nationals who come to Israel. 

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An irrational neighbor

CounterPoint to:

Palestinians' self-inflicted wounds

"Israeli oppression has helped fracture Palestinian society and turn some of its groups into desperados who fight one another to maintain a modicum of control over their increasingly restricted and empty lives."

Rami Khouri
The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

"These are grim days for the Palestinians," writes Lebanese political analyst Rami Khouri, "but not unusual ones for the Arab world as a whole. The sight of clan-based political groups in Gaza killing each other is sadly familiar in many parts of the region."

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