Rabbi Michael Samuel

Richard Goldstone believes he was standing up for Israel and Jewish ethics. Let us assume that this well-respected judge had the best of intentions. Yet, his conclusion that Israel violated the human rights of the Palestinians strains the imagination beyond the breaking point. Is any kind of war justified according to Goldstone—especially when the enemy cynically deploys human shields while it shoots thousands of missiles over an eight year stretch of time? Not according to Goldstone.

Unfortunately Goldstone never bothered to consider the firsthand evidence from videotapes, or news reports from terrified Palestinians who condemned their own leaders for endangering their lives while exploiting them as human shields.

Asymmetrical warfare poses serious problems that may ultimately destroy the West, unless it develops a practical game plan. The Geneva War Convention never had to deal with such problems. Colonel Richard Kemp told the media but couldn’t tell the Goldstone Commission, because they refused to listen to him, “ I think Israel has very little choice other than to carry on with its military operations until it reaches the conclusion it needs which is to stop Hamas from firing rockets at its people in its territory.” Yet, despite it all Israel went to great pains to minimize civilian carnage.

Israel is fighting the war of the future; one wonders what Goldstone would have said about the United States carpet bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan, or the British and Allie bombing of Dresden during World War II. If the Allies would have fought like Goldstone recommends, Hitler would have conquered the civilized world. Unfortunately, Goldstone’s acquiescence to the forces of Islamic radicalism and Western appeasement threatens to only create more mayhem in the years to come and less stability or peace for all the countries of the Middle East and beyond. In the meantime, the world community says nothing as Hamas builds towns made up of human shields along its borders for the next round of war. The real tragedy is that the West has learned absolutely nothing from the appeasement philosophy of the early 20th century. Once again, philosopher George Santayana’s sobering warning, “He who forgets the past is condemned to repeat it” is especially relevant here.

The hypocrisy of the Goldstone is a frightening and grim indictment of all Western societies. Someday, a historian will write a book, “How the West was Lost . . . ”

History will remember Richard Goldstone as a traitor to his people.