Goldstone and Operation Cast Lead a Year Later

Do you remember Israel’s military operation, Operation Cast Lead? It happened two years ago, when Israel retaliated against Hamas for an eight-year rocket barrage attacking southern Israel.

Many of us hailed Operation Cast Lead by saying: it’s about time that Israel defended her people.

The world cried out against Israeli brutality.

The United Nations immediately “investigated.”

The UN Human Rights Council appointed Judge Richard Goldstone – a prominent, respected Jew from South Africa – to lead the investigation.

Surely that was good news, asking a Jew to lead the investigation…
But it wasn’t good news … because it came from the UN Human Rights Council.

The UN Human Rights Council is blatantly anti-Israel – and not at all a favorable arena for promoting human rights. An example, in late February the Council commended Libya for its human rights efforts!

As a human rights watchdog, the group is a bad … macabre … joke. So, to no one’s surprise, the Goldstone report branded Israel as blatantly guilty of war crimes.
Goldstone did accuse both Hamas and Israel of these war crimes. However, this report made Israel sound a lot worse than Hamas.

Goldstone accused Israel of intentionally targeting civilians.
Fact: Israeli policy was to warn civilians of every military action.
Fact: there were significant civilian casualties in Gaza.
Fact: Hamas used civilians as human shields.
Fact: War is brutal and chaotic and mistakes are always made. War is horrible.

Forget that Hamas targets are always civilian. Forget that Hamas had attacked Israelis for years. Forget that Israel spent years resisting even adequate self-defense, let alone retaliation.

Israel was the bad guy, a terrorist nation. Naturally, the world hailed the Goldstone Report as further proof of Israeli atrocities. The damage to Israel – and to Jews – has been far-reaching and incalculable. I bring this upfor two reasons:

1. The Middle East is more dangerous than ever. There are multiple rebellions and we have no idea who – if any – are the good guys. The vilification of Israel makes our situation even more precarious.
2.And because Judge Goldstone recently issued a semi-retraction in the Washington Post.

On April 1st – yes, April Fool’s Day – Judge Goldstone wrote: “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.”
Goldstone explained that “today we know more” than they did at the time of his investigation.

We could ask: why didn’t you wait and make sure all the facts were in?
In his semi mea culpa, Goldstone blamed the victim. He complained that Israel didn’t cooperate. He also expressed the hope that both Israel and Gaza would investigate the war on their own.

Israel has been investigating Operation Cast Lead for two years. Goldstone expressed surprise and disappointment that no such investigation came from Hamas.
In his article, Goldstone further expressed the hope that his criticism of Gaza would lead them to “curtail their attacks.”

Hamas has recently renewed their attacks on Israel, the most recent target a school bus with children. Yes, Israeli retaliation was swift and strong – but Hamas rocket attacks shouldn’t be happening at all.

Was Hamas encouraged by Goldstone’s mild criticism the world directed toward them – coupled with the unrelenting accusations of Israel for war crimes?

Goldstone’s admission is astounding and tragic. While he excuses the bias, he seems to understand that he operated without facts.

However, our question is this: can any amount of teshuvah, repentance, undo the damage Goldstone unleashed?

Let’s take a moment to look at how seriously Judaism takes lashon harah – often considered to be gossip, but literally defined as evil speech. This week’s parshah, Metzorah, is ostensibly about skin disease and matters of ritual impurity.

My colleague – Rabbi/Doctor Leonard Sharzer points out that there is nothing medical about the parshah. There are deep truths. One of the hidden messages of Metzorah relates to lashon harah. According to tradition, speaking lashon harah leads to the skin afflictions detailed in the Torah.

Do note: Jewish theology does NOT blame a sick person for getting sick. The connection between disease and speech cannot be taken literally.
What the Torah does teach: if a person spreads distortions and lies, his inner essence will become evident to all. This doesn’t mean through physical disease – just that the truth will eventually come out.

People will know. The person speaking lashon harah is liable to be shunned and isolated.

After all, speaking lashon harah does eventually put one outside the community….
Moses Maimonides, the Rambam, taught that slandering a community makes complete repentance virtually impossible.

Repentance – teshuvah –requires restitution. How can you do that with an entire community, let alone a nation? Further, suppose others were harmed as a result?
The damage can go a long way.

Our world loves rhetoric and often shuns serious fact-checking. News comes to us in snippets – lacking context and history. We forg the art of reading between the lines to see what information we’re missing.

Unfortunately, Richard Goldstone’s original report did so much damage, Israel’s reputation … and safety … cannot be assured with even the deepest of apologies.
We must carefully weigh our statements and pronouncements. Goldstone didn’t do that, and needlessly caused a lot of damage to Israel and the Jewish people.

We can easily do the same thing by repeating lies and distortions we hear in the media.

We must always be mindful of Torah – which teaches us to be cautious, just, and compassionate in even our daily speech.

In other words, God really does require fact-checking… may we guard our own speech and carefully weigh that of others as we prepare to re-enact our journey to freedom and holiness.


B'shalom u'vrachah, in peace and blessing,
Rabbi Shaina Bacharach