Oct 24

Written by:
10/24/2009 8:32 AM 

Listening to Richard Goldstone last night was an hour to remember. Partly the fascination was with that face, the lips barely moving, and with expression showing only at fleeting moments, like the sky attempting a sunburst. In whole, the fascination was with the precision of report and judgement. He never hesitated, hemmed nor hawed, although at moments of extreme effort to make a point he stuttered. I'm having trouble here to reach the heart of his take on things, so have to get specific. Here's Hiroshima. Moyers asked if it was a war crime. Goldstone was oblique. He said that under current perception of international law it was! My god what an answer. A somewhat similar pass was given the US when he was evaluating the IDF's degree of effort to protect non-combatants. Of course we all now know that point number one of the report was that the IDF deliberately targeted non-combatants. But here's his side comment: he said that the US military took exceptional care to avoid collateral harm to civilians! So here you have a paradox. Where speaking just of Israel v Gaza he was a model of clarity, consistency, and morality. But where speaking of the US he was practically quoting our media. But this leaves out the meat of the man which is his iron will and high standard of personal achievement. Words, words, I'm talking about his tiff with the UN Human Rights people. He caught them in biased action, Gaza over Israel, and dug in. You think about that for a while and you may be starting to get a glimpse inside Richard Goldstone.