Goldstone’s Regrets: Once Again, Peace is Bogged Down in a Morass of Hatred and Lies

by Daniel E. Levenson, ALM

April 9, 2011

American Middle East policy has often appeared inconsistent or inscrutable from the outside, and in this moment, when America finds itself openly involved in three wars – Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya – not to mention covertly involved in what are seen to be related conflicts in places like Pakistan and Yemen, the picture is even less clear. Another factor is the recent Washington Post Op-Ed by South African jurist and author of the “Goldtsone Report,” Justice Richard Goldstone, who was part of a group investigating allegations of war crimes during the Gaza war in 2008. Justice Goldstone has added further confusion to the overall picture of events relating to Israel by retracting some of what he wrote in this report for the United Nations, a report which unfairly characterized Israel as having purposely committed war crimes.

Time and again the Israeli Defense Forces have been praised by outside foreign military officers for the care the IDF takes in avoiding civilian casualties, while Hamas recently fired an anti-tank weapon at a school bus full of children. Given this, how one can even begin to calculate some form of moral equivalency is mind-boggling. The decision by Hamas to increase the level of violence directed at Israel, both directly and by proxy, underscores a truth that many otherwise intelligent people are doing their best to ignore: That Gaza is a terrorist state ruled by the kind of people who think nothing of randomly firing rockets, missiles and mortars into the middle of civilian population centers, while in the West Bank, President Abbas has been somewhat successful in encouraging economic development and in cutting down on terrorist activity aimed at Israeli civilians. A significant split has already taken place between Fatah and Hamas, one that is not likely to be repaired, and this is part of the new political reality which any would-be peacemakers must confront.

Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders in the West Bank continue working toward recognition of an independent Palestinian state by the UN this coming fall. If they do succeed, there would of course be a profound irony in this, given the wholesale Arab rejection of partition and the creation of two states, one Jewish and one Arab, some sixty-odd years ago. This was a rejection which resulted, not only in the May 1948 War of Independence, but created a climate which nurtured and enabled an environment characterized by continuous low-grade armed conflict which occasionally flared up into full-scale war, most notably in 1956, 1967 and 1973. My suggestion to Israeli leaders who are actively trying to prevent this declaration, a declaration which I believe would probably do irreparable harm to the peace process, is to highlight Goldstone’s new thoughts on his investigation, and to point out the unwillingness of Hamas to cease or renounce their violent tactics. Furthermore,  recognizing an independent Palestinian state before the necessary political, economic and security arrangements are in place, with no regard for Israel or the peace process, is likely to lead to the creation of an inherently weak Palestinian state, one that would be vulnerable, in the long term, to aggression from Hamas.

Unfortunately, Justice Goldstone displays what I would call a certain degree of naiveté tempered by a desire not to appear callous when it comes to terrorism, something which I believe is on display when he wrote in a recent Washington Post Op-Ed piece that, “At minimum I hoped that in the face of a clear finding that its members were committing serious war crimes, Hamas would curtail its attacks. Sadly, that has not been the case. Hundreds more rockets and mortar rounds have been directed at civilian targets in southern Israel. That comparatively few Israelis have been killed by the unlawful rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza in no way minimizes the criminality. The U.N. Human Rights Council should condemn these heinous acts in the strongest terms.” Need I repeat my own beliefs here that any organization that countenances the use of an anti-armor weapon against a school bus full of children is unlikely to rebuke its members for moral failings? Hamas has said very clearly what its goals are  - to destroy Israel – and based on their actions, I see no reason to disbelieve them. Furthermore, the UN Human Rights Council has been consistently and openly hostile to Israel, so I doubt a reconsideration of the report is in the offing.

Needless to say, all of these developments do not bode well for the prospects of reviving the peace process. The White House is likely to be consumed not only with managing its various wars and military actions, but with President Obama’s re-election campaign. The State Department, one of our nation’s most valuable resources, is both underfunded and under-staffed, and will no doubt have its hands full with various modes of “transition” – including conducting diplomatic clean-up operations after these various revolutions, uprisings and wars, from Afghanistan to Libya, finally come to some sort of end. But I think that whatever resources do end up getting devoted to resuscitating the peace talks that the world should not forget the patently unfair treatment Israel has received at the hands of the United Nations or that when Justice Goldstone was brave enough to speak out and admit that parts of this damming report were wrong, that the UN’s first inclination was to ignore his words. At times like these it is hard to be optimistic, but I am a little hopeful that when and if the Palestinian leadership does decide to press for recognition in the UN, that someone will be brave enough to bring up this apparent disparity, between a democratic state which strives to protect its own citizens and minimize civilian casualties when acting in self-defense, vs. a violent terrorist regime which purposely tries to kill the children of its enemy. Even this is probably too much to hope for, but I would suggest that anything less would be an affront to the truth and a slap in the face to both average Israelis and Palestinians, whose aspirations for peace will only be undermined by the lies and slander directed at Israel as this fraught and frangible peace process limps forward.

Copyright Daniel E. Levenson/The New Vilna Review 2011.