At 5PM EST today, you can watch a live debate between Judge Richard Goldstone - of Goldstone Commission fame - and Dore Gold, now of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, formerly the Israeli Ambassador to the UN. Their debate comes one day after the House of Representatives dismissed the Goldstone report as a sham and as the UN General Assembly deliberates over a non-binding resolution to refer the report to the Security Council (bit of a foregone conclusion, that one.)

In the meantime, here is an engaging recent email correspondence between Judge Goldstone and Gregg Mashberg, a leading New York lawyer and prominent Israel advocate.

Mashberg to Goldstone

Dear Prof. Goldstone,

At the end of your answer to my question during your presentation Tuesday evening at NY Law School, you stated that nobody, including Israel, had refuted the substantive findings of your report. I responded that you were incorrect, but my time at the microphone was up.

Respectfully, your statement was most certainly incorrect. By way of example,

Here is a link to Israel’s initial response to your report:

Here is a link to a factual refutation of certain of your report’s findings prepared by the Committee for Accuracy in the Middle East Reporting in America (”CAMERA”):

More generally, here is a link to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Web site regarding Gaza, largely prepared prior to the issuance of your report, but which provides extensive factual data that contradicts many of your factual conclusions:

While these references are quite lengthy, I would hope that if you have not already done so, you will review them thoroughly. In light of the serious repercussions stemming from your report, I’m sure that you would agree that you have a continuing obligation to review, analyze and, where appropriate, reconsider the facts underlying your findings and recommendations.

Goldstone to Mashberg

Dear Mr. Mashberg,
Thank you for taking the trouble to contact me. Save for the “camera” document, I have read carefully the documents to which you refer, With respect, there is still no response from the Israel Government to the substance of the Report and in particular the targeting of civilians and civilian objects. I have seen no response to the huge destruction of the infrastructure and especially food infrastructure during Operation Cast Lead. The long report was fully taken into account in our report and there are references to it in the Report.
Sincerely,
Richard Goldstone

Mashberg to Goldstone

Dear Professor Goldstone,

Thank you for your response to my e-mail. I very much appreciate your taking the time to address the issues I raised.

I have been considering very carefully whether to respond and, if so, what I would say that might justify taking more of your time. I do not think it would be productive to go back and forth regarding the substance of your report. I understand your position and I leave it to others, who have a thorough command of the facts, to address the specific accusations. I would, however, like to address something else, something that I believe is important to both of us as Jews and as supporters of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

As I certainly need not tell you, your report has created a fire storm. The uproar goes beyond the precise issue of what happened in Gaza before and during Cast Lead. Your report is being exploited by Israel’s many enemies as a further challenge the legitimacy of the Jewish state.

I do not believe that it was your intent or your desire that this occur. I believe that you approached the Mission from what you saw as a focused mandate, where it was your job to uncover facts, and that is what you believe you did. Nonetheless, your report has become a formidable weapon against Israel, going way beyond Cast Lead.

Indeed, Professor Goldstone, I am sure that you are acutely aware that underlying the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is a deep antithapy to the existence of the Jewish state, even among those considered to be moderates. Abu Mazen and his senior leadership refuse to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state and insist upon a right of return. This is their position today, at complete odds with a real two-state solution, and it would be foolhardy to dismiss this as a mere “negotiating posture.” Vicious incitement against Israel and, moreover, Judaism itself, remains a constant. As if we need yet another example, right now Israel is being accused of threatening the existence of the Al-Aksa mosque, a blatant lie designed to incite hatred of and violence against Israelis and Jews.

Of course, Hamas takes all of this to another level of depravity, for which I need not elaborate.

This is the toxic milieu into which your report has been injected. Your report has been championed even by Hamas, which knows a powerful anti-Israel weapon when it sees one.

While I understand your position that criticism of Israel stemming from its conduct in Gaza is the responsibility of Israel and not the responsibility of your Mission for reporting it, I certainly do not believe that you ascribe to the broader anti-Zionist narrative that Israel is an oppressive colonialist enterprise without legal, moral, religious or historic legitimacy. Nonetheless, Professor, the reality is that your report is a welcome weapon in the hands of those who take precisely that tack.

As a supporter of Israel it must be very painful for to see your report being used against Israel by those whose only goal is to deligitimize the Jewish state and, concomitantly, to find yourself being criticized intensely by numerous governmental and non-governmental bodies, particularly Israel, its supporters and the broader Jewish community.

However distressing this may be, I assume you nonetheless view this as perhaps the inevitable price to pay for advancing the cause of international human rights. I assume further that you believe that, in the long run, it is better for Israel that its alleged misdeeds be uncovered and addressed.

Professor Goldstone, I hope there is a long run. Simply because the effective campaign to delegitimize the apartheid regime of your country was justified, does not mean that the unjustified campaign to delegitimize Israel as a Jewish state won’t be just as effective. The suffering of the Palestinian people, cynically promoted and exploited by the Palestinian leadership for decades, is a weapon of immense power - more powerful, I believe, than any weapon in Israel’s arsenal. Yasir Arafat was quoted as saying, “all Palestinians are martyrs.” I never cease marveling at the cruelty, dysfunction and power of this statement. Hamas learned the lesson well. Thus, as I believe you well know, Hamas virtually begged Israel to attack Gaza, anticipating that Israel would be vilified for the resulting civilian casualties. It worked beautifully. I know you believe that Hamas’s evil motives do not excuse Israel’s actions (a matter that, as noted, I leave to others to argue with you). But that does not mean that the essential factor that gave rise to Cast Lead - the drive to eliminate Israel as a Jewish state - can be overshadowed.

In light of all this, Professor Goldstone, your report cannot be separated for a moment from the broader context in which it exists. Indeed, you have already ventured into the political arena by criticizing Foreign Minister Lieberman recently for discounting the prospect of a resolution of the conflict in the foreseeable future.

I believe that, as a leading supporter of international human rights, not to mention as a supporter of the Jewish state, it is incumbent upon you, when speaking and writing about your report, that you put it in context. I believe you are duty-bound to balance your severe criticism of Israel’s tactical actions with vigorous criticism of the incitement, rejectionism and violence that emanates from the Palestinian side, and which led to Cast Lead. This is the only way your voice can possibly have credibility outside Israel’s detractors. You accomplish nothing for any potential peace process and, I would respectfully note, your legacy, to be seen as yet another vigorous opponent of Israel.

To the extent that your response is that you have spoken out against Hamas and have condemned the rocket attacks that led to Cast Lead, I must tell you it is too little and it is not being heard. At this point, I am constrained to say, your report and your public appearances and writings all cast you as a partisan critic of Israel, another manifestation of the HRC’s singular anti-Israeli agenda. While I believe that is not your intent or purpose, it is the perceived reality.

Respectfully, it is not enough to say that you cannot do more, that you cannot control how others may misinterpret your findings. I believe that, at this point, the focus of your public statements should be directed against Palestinian violence, rejectionism, incitement and dysfunction. Your report speaks for itself when it comes to your perception of Israel’s conduct. You have made your point loud and clear. Enough. Now is the time to speak to the Palestinians and their supporters, just as loudly and just as clearly. They need to hear the essential message: Violence must stop. Palestinian promotion and exploitation of Palestinian suffering must stop. The anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement must stop. The myth of the right of return must be abandoned. Israel as a Jewish state is the reality. In other words, the Palestinians need to hear that the war of 1948 is over, and they must prepare for peace.

Professor, you are now in a unique position to deliver these critical messages. The question is whether you can rise above the fray and speak the truths that the world community has not had the courage or clarity of purpose to tell the Palestinians: that peace is, to a very large extent, dependant upon them.

Thank you for indulging me in this lengthy message. Your attention is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Gregg M. Mashberg

Goldstone to Mashberg

Dear Mr. Mashberg,
I would like to express my sincere thanks to you for taking the time to explain your views to me. I consider them valuable and much in line with my own thinking. I will certainly speak out appropriately if I feel that the Report is being used to delegitimize Israel and its right to exist. I will also speak out if the Human Rights Council continues to treat Israel exceptionally and unfairly. I feel that I am now in a position to do so. At the same time I believe that Israel and Jewish communities on the one hand and Palestinians and the Arab world need to stop demonizing each other. The evidence we received from victims in southern Israel who have suffered from years of sustained rocket and mortar fire and the terror this has caused for their communities (this is reflected in our report) cannot but call for the strongest condemnation. The glee when Israelis are killed or injured is abhorent to any decent person. By the same token my visits to Gaza could not but induce sympathy for the plight of hundreds of thousands of people who are suffering from the blockade and the effects of Operation Cast lead on them and indeed just about the whole civilian population. I do not believe that peace will come to the Middle East until both sides have leaders who have the courage and ability to lead their followers away from demonizing the “others”.
Thank you for taking the time to send me your thoughtful e-mail and, I hope, for reading this response.
Best wishes,
Richard Goldstone