In an affront to Jews worldwide, the Chicago Tribune published an op-ed essay by Rabbi Brant Rosen, before Yom Kippur, “A call to moral accounting.” Rosen uses the Hebrew term “cheshbon hanefesh” to give a religious patina to his blatantly political argument.
I don’t mean to suggest that the report is perfect. No human endeavor is. Evidence of bias in the commission’s make-up is important, and should be honestly addressed, as the White House has suggested. But to categorically reject the Goldstone findings — which echo the work of highly respected Israeli and international human rights groups such as B’tselem and Human Rights Watch — is to thrust our heads into the sand. In the end, the report’s most critical recommendation is that Israel and Hamas thoroughly and credibly investigate themselves, and hold accountable any combatants or commanders who violated the law.
True, no human endeavor is perfect – certainly not Rosen’s op-ed – but this underplays the Goldstone Commission’s report’s faults. The makeup of the Commission isn’t a cosmetic problem, but one that goes to the purpose of the report. Including Christine Chinkin on the commission was problematic for she signed a letter arguing that Israel has no right of self-defense. So the commission’s biased charge – to focus on Israeli violations – was reinforced by the personnel. Goldstone’s claim that he sought to change the focus of his commission’s mandate is undermined by the fact that he paid only cursory attention to Hamas’s terror gererally and its campaign against Israel civilians that necessitated the Israel invasion.
The actions of the Jewish State ultimately reflect upon the Jewish people throughout the world. We in the Diaspora Jewish community have long taken pride in the accomplishments of the Jewish State. As with any family, the success of some reflects a warm light on us all. But pride cannot blind us to the capacity for error on the part of the country we hold so dear. We cannot identify with the successes, but refuse to see the failures.
As we approach Yom Kippur, I call on America’s Jews to examine the Goldstone findings, and consider their implications. In the spirit of the season, we must consider the painful truth of Israel’s behavior in Gaza, and understand that we must work, together, to discover the truth — and then urge on all relevant parties in the search for peace.
On the other hand I would consider the Israeli effort to avoid civilian casualties to be a success.
I have, by the way, examined some of Goldstone’s findings and found that they showed a lack of curiosity and a predisposition to find Israel guilty. The implications are that Goldstone deliberately ignored exculpatory evidence that would favor Israel and accepted at face value any charge against Israel.
Take for example the testimony of Gaza police spokesman Islam Shahwan. In at least 3 cases, the Goldstone commission accepted his testimony at face value. Yet as bloggers Elder of Ziyon and Israel Matzav note, Shahwan recently promulgated the rehashed fiction that Israel was flooding Gaza with gum laced with aphrodisiacs in order to corrupt Palestinian youth. Isn’t this someone whose testimony should be treated with at least a grain of skepticism.
On the other hand take the testimony of Dr. Mirela Siderer.
On May 14, 2008, my life was changed forever. I was working in my clinic. Suddenly, the building was hit by a missile, fired from Gaza. I was terribly wounded. Blood was everywhere. My patient was also wounded, and more than 100 others. Next month will be my eighth operation.
Judge Goldstone, I told you all of this, in detail. I testified in good faith. You sent me this letter, saying, “Your testimony is an essential part of the Mission’s fact-finding activities.”
And how essential was Dr. Siderer’s to Judge Goldstone’s report?
But now I see your report. I have to tell you: I am shocked.
Judge Goldstone, in a 500-page report, why did you completely ignore my story? My name appears only in passing, in brackets, in a technical context. I feel humiliated.
Why are there only two pages about Israeli victims like me, who suffered thousands of rockets over eight years? Why did you choose to focus on the period of my country’s response, but not on that of the attacks that caused it? Why did you not tell me that this council judged Israel guilty in advance, in its meeting of last January? Why did you not tell me that members of your panel signed public letters judging Israel guilty in advance?
Got that, Rabbi Rosen? The Goldstone Commission took the testimony of a confirmed propagandist in order to make its case against Israel and rejected the testimony of a doctor who treats both Arabs and Jews. This kind of discrepancy could not occur by accident. It can only be the result of a deliberate attempt to condemn Israel.
Rabbi Rosen asks American Jews to accept the findings of the Goldstone report in order to effect a “moral accounting.” Rabbi Rosen is the one who ought to be doing the accounting as he supports the slander of Israel. But before he does he could use an introductory course on debit and credits.
Thanks to Daled Amos for the sources for this post.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
I did volunteer work in Sderot for three months, in 2007. A couple of months after I came back to England, the bedroom of a thirteen year old girl I taught English to was hit directly by a rocket fired from Gaza. She was in the house at the time, along with her mother and sister. Can you imagine the trauma that this kid and her family went through? A thirteen year old girl’s bedroom – her personal sanctuary – destroyed, for nothing. How sick is that? Where is the outrage? You won’t find it in the lip-service of the Goldstone report, that’s for sure. The United Nations can go to hell. I will never know how Richard Goldstone sleeps at night.
According to one report, there is footage of Goldstone actually sleeping during the testimony of another missile victim from Sderot. There’s objectivity for you.
I imagine if someone wrote a report on the bombing of Japan and started at Nagasaki, ignoring Pearl Harbor and everything Japan did in Manchuria, Burma and the Phillipines, he might come to a similar conclusion about the US.
Actually, while he uses the term, he does not actually perform the action. Chesbon Hanefesh means being completely honest and understanding not only what is done, but the flaws that led to that action. Before a person can ask forgiveness, he must first acknowledge exactly what he did wrong. When the sin involves other people, he must make a complete and sincere confession and ask mechila (forgiveness) from the person that he has wronged.
That is why “Lashon Hara” (evil speech – though it is true) and rechilus or motzi shem ra (slander – which is false) are among the most difficult sins to atone for. The analogy is releasing a bag of feathers over the Grand Canyon and then trying to retrieve them. Every one who has heard the slanders, even if they did not believe them, must be approached and the results of the slander canceled.
I find that I cannot call the author of the screed “rabbi” Rosen (the lower case r is deliberate). His pretense that the slanderers that goldstone used as “authorities” are credible or “respected” is laughable to say the least. The comments by such really honest and respected bloggers as daledamos, elderofzion, israelmatzav, yidwithlid, and soccerdad himself among so many others have shown that the only true things that goldstone put into the report were the names of the participants in the travesty and the fact that something happened in Gaza.
In the Yom Kippur prayers we ask for forgiveness for all the sins that we, and any members of our community, might have done. I am sure that we (as individuals) have not committed most of the sins that we have read, but we ask forgiveness because of the fact that someone in the Am Yisrael (people of Israel) could have done so. In this case, “rabbi” rosen and “judge” goldstone need to reread the prayers and ask for forgiveness of the people that they have slandered.
Someone who is in a position to judge and judges falsely is considered as he he helped destroy the world. This is both someone who condemns the innocent as well as one who frees the guilty. The “goldstone report” is guilty of both. As a result, Rosen has committed the crime of “Chillul Hashem” (desecration of G-d’s Name) by leading someone who does not know the facts to think that he is speaking as a “rabbi”.
After Yom Kippur, we ask for forgiveness as part of the post Yom Kippur prayer. It is a common question, why do we include the request immediately after Yom Kippur, when we have just gone through the full Day of Atonement. One answer might be to look at these two people, who have refused to atone for the sins that they committed. Maimonides says that those who refuse to admit that the sins that they have committed were wrong in the first place cannot atone. While this occurs, we cannot wash the stain of the sin from our souls. We are all affected by the sins of commission and omission exemplified by the “goldstone report” and its defenders.
Is there any hope for our world? I am no longer certain that there is. There is simply too much evil. People willing to say anything. People willing to DO anything. All to promote fear and hatred among all humans. Why? What can they possibly gain from doing these things? There WILL be a ‘day of reckoning’ for us all, but not soon enough to save our world, I fear. Such hatred as we now see has NEVER, in the history of the world, been seen before. It is now brother against brother, child against parent, parent against child, even husband against wife, and vice-versa. How have we come to this? What evils have been loosed upon the earth, and how? Does any rational being feel any hope remains? What can we do? I want to help, as many do, but the opposition is far too powerful and widespread. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them. Even if only to help me understand how we have fallen so far, in such a short span of time. All I can do is pray, but is G_D even willing to hear us any longer, or has He turned his face against us in despair? What say you all?
“Brant Rosen is the rabbi of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanstonâ€; Another useful utopian idiot, probably has a group of ten likeminded fools making up his kapo group.
He’s a Reconstructionist? Feh. They’re barely Jews. Reform congregations are way more religious.
As an American, a Jew, and Northwestern graduate I urge Goldstone, Brant Rosen, the Reconstructionists, Evanston, and The Chicago Tribune to resolutely bite me.
I totally agree with Dr. Siderer who feels humiliated and angree by the final report of Mr. Golstone.
This report is one sided and it doesn’t mention that the Hamas has been using the Gaza Strip as a launching pad for its terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians with an ever increasing intensity and geographical range, causing ingeries and trauma among the civilians.
I commend Rabbi Rosen for unusual honesty and forthrightness.
He makes it very clear, in fact spells it out, that it’s a problem for him when Israeli actions cause him embarrassment when he’s with his progressive friends and thus he exacts from Israel a high (and unattainable) standard of behavior, short of which he can show that by golly he’s not one of those chauvinistic Jews who is a reactive defender of Israel.
I commend him, as I say, for honesty, but not for much else.
“What can they possibly gain from doing these things?”
A world in which they can hold themselves above the law. Not even the President of the United States can do that, only dictators of third world countries can. To some people, the risk of being a slave in such a failed state is worth the tiny chance of becoming its king.
“Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.” – Lucifer