In other words, Goldstone rolled over to Israeli pressure.
Little if anything changed.
When Richard Goldstone returned home to South Africa last May for his grandsons bar mitzvah an event that he was almost unable to paticipate in because of protests planned against him he also attended a separate meeting whose details were kept secret until now.
In the wake of Goldstones bombshell retraction of a key finding in the famous report that bears his name, those aware of what occurred at that meeting, individuals who have known him through the years, felt moved to disclose what happened. They joined many others in puzzling over what had prompted the famous jurist to change his mind and, they hoped, Israels fate.
The meeting, an official parlay between Goldstone and a cross-section of 10 of the South African Jewish communitys top leaders, had a profound impact on Goldstone, said one participant and another senior official briefed on it afterward.
Debating face to face with the community really shook him, said David Saks, associate director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, who received a read-out on the meeting right after it took place. When he saw the extent of the anger and he couldnt answer the accusations against him
I think he realized he was wrong.
Read more:
Did a Private Meeting Prompt Goldstone To Change His Mind?
Nope. He had pressure on him from the beginning. What changed his mind is that Hamas' lies were exposed.
Ron Radosh » Judge Richard Goldstones Stunning Re-evaluation of His Own Report
That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets. As for serious crimes against civilians that resulted from Israeli defensive action, Goldstone now writes that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy by Israel. The moral equivalence, thankfully, has now disappeared in the judges new conclusions. Moreover, where possible violations of human rights were committed by Israel, Goldstone now writes that in one case if an Israeli officer was found to have acted inappropriately, and is found to have been negligent, Israel will respond accordingly.
Some have suggested that it was absurd to expect Hamas, an organization that has a policy to destroy the state of Israel, to investigate what we said were serious war crimes. It was my hope, even if unrealistic, that Hamas would do so, especially if Israel conducted its own investigations. 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.
And later on, he writes that there has been no effort by Hamas in Gaza to investigate the allegations of its war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. Goldstone indeed writes: In the end, asking Hamas to investigate may have been a mistaken enterprise. No kidding. It seems it has just occurred to the judge that a terrorist organization committed to destroying Israel cannot, unlike democratic Israel, have any stake in investigating its own human rights violations. Did the judge really not comprehend this in 2009? And as for right now, Judge Goldstone adds that the Human Rights Council should condemn the inexcusable and cold-blooded recent slaughter of a young Israeli couple and three of their small children in their beds. Yes, Yes, Yes! What the judge does not say, of course, is that we all know that this will simply not happen. A Council that until recently had Col. Qadaffis Libya as a member is not about to do this, despite Goldstones recommendation.
I haven't chimed in to this conversation at all.
