What would you do?
Here are my impressions of what Aussie Dave called the Dore Gold v. Richard Goldstone Overall, I really felt that Dore Gold won the debate. That assessment is based on the audience reaction and on the comprehensiveness of his presentation. Goldstone seemed dumbfounded at the slides and video that Gold produced.
I was surprised that most of the crowd was not hostile. I was prepared for a crowd that would react with much hostility to Gold and Israel. That was not the case for the most part.
Once the videos are online and you've had a chance to see them, I believe you will agree with me.
I entitled this post "What would you do?" because that was the question Gold left with the audience: What would you do if you were facing the situation that Israel was facing from Gaza?
Gold managed to get in all the points he wanted. He even worked in the Iranian arms ship seizure on Wednesday.
Unfortunately, I am going to have to shut this post off for now - I'm losing my Internet connection. Will try to post more later Thursday night or Friday morning (I'm still in Boston now).
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:38 AM
2 Comments:
I mentioned a couple of those points and I add nothing further except to say that any country in the world would have been much harsher than Israel. Israel behaved in a restrained manner - hyper-moral if you want - and received no credit for its care for the lives of its adversary. The lesson for Israel is that its extra scrupulousness pays no dividends and in the future it should seek to win a war outright without regard for what happens to civilians since the resultant criticism (and punishment) is going to be the same. Far from ensuring greater protection for civilians and less brutality during a war, Goldstone has all but guaranteed the opposite will happen.
I was present at the Brandeis meeting and I concur with Carl's impressions. I would, however, take it a step further. There were many faculty and community people firmly on the left who I know personally who did not rise to salute Goldstone and who seemed very impressed by Dore Gold's line by line refutation of the report. When Goldstone mentioned a "survey" that his committee had mailed to the leadership of Fatah, Hamas and Israel as part of their investigation one person usually on the left muttered-"why didn't they use survey monkey to validate their research" Dore Gold did a wonderful job and though this was not described as a debate, he clearly won on points and I do think that to the extent that Goldstone is capable of embarrassment- he was.
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