Time will tell

It would be impossible, having listened to the news of the last few days, to ignore Judge Richard Goldstone's climbdown in the press. Surprisingly, even the BBC reported it, at least on their website. 

After Operation Cast Lead, a military operation in Gaza aimed at stopping the hundreds of rockets that were being fired on Israeli citizens, the United Nations wanted an inquiry. A panel was appointed, with the South African retired judge as its chair. 

The report spoke of atrocities, of war crimes, of possible crimes against humanity committed by both Israel and the Hamas terrorist organisation who currently govern in Gaza. Two years after his report was published, the judge has finally discovered that his rose-tinted glasses of Hamas had cracked, and he has now made the most shocking statement in Friday's Washington Post: 

"We know a lot more today about what happened in the Gaza war of 2008-09 than we did when I chaired the fact-finding mission appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council that produced what has come to be known as the Goldstone Report. If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document." 

The report was flawed from the outset. Take into account that the noble-sounding Human Rights Council had Libya as one of its members. Yes. THAT Libya. The one where strafing your own people using fighter aircraft is acceptable. Human Rights? Human Wrongs. 

The judge, in his somewhat muted apology, has taken two years to reach the same conclusions the Israelis had done from the outset. He was surprised that Hamas never investigated any of the war crimes that they committed, whereas Israel is still investigating 400 events that may or may not have contravened the rules of engagement, and will deal with any crimes appropriately. He also finally concluded the fact that Israel had claimed all along. There was NO intentional targeting by Israel of civilians in Gaza. 

The same cannot be said for Hamas. Their rockets were and still are aimed directly and intentionally at towns that neighbour the Gaza strip, terrorising the residents day in and day out. At the same time, these rockets were fired from family homes, from schools and from hospitals whilst hiding behind civilians, and callously hoping that any strikes undertaken by the Israelis would kill civilians, and thereby provide useful propaganda. The disregard shown by Hamas for human life, either that of the Israelis or, more shockingly, of their own people, shows the true colours of their belief and way of life. Or death. 

Golda Meir, already decades ago, summed it up perfectly.  

"Peace will come when the Arabs love their children, more than they hate us." 

It's just sad that it took two whole years of vilification and increased hatred of Israel, for the one person who was supposed to investigate what happened to finally admit that he didn't really have all the facts at all. 

Either that, or the reality was too ominous to believe, so it was easier to report the lies. I'll give him his dues. It takes courage for a man to admit that he was wrong. I wonder what he'll do now to try to repair the damage to Israel, to its reputation, to its soldiers, to it's people. I wonder how he'll go about overturning the two years of propaganda that he helped create. 

I suspect, somewhat cynically, that he'll worry more about his own reputation first. As in this case however, I believe that time will tell, as in the end it always does.