What we can learn from Goldstone
A lot of people are running around telling us that the sky is falling and that the only way we can hold it up is to capitulate to the 'Palestinians' and their supporters before September. But Caroline Glick writes that the unraveling of Richard Goldstone this past weekend teaches precisely the opposite lesson. The first lesson then is never to surrender or give any quarter to lies. We greeted Goldstone’s mendacious report on Operation Cast Lead with justified indignation and furor and never backed down. In the face of the massive international pressure that followed his presentation of his lies, we stood our ground. Our behavior denied Goldstone and his cronies the ability to portray his mendacious report as the unvarnished truth. Because of this reaction, from the beginning it was clear that its findings were at best dubious.Read it all.
The second lesson is that the government must hold firm. In the Internet age when everyone can have a say, the most important commodity a person can have is legitimacy. The government confers legitimacy on its defenders and so empowers them to take action. If the government had capitulated to Goldstone, half the voices attacking his blood libel would probably have never spoken out or been heard.
The third lesson from the Goldstone experience is that people make up governments and people make policies. Since people are social animals, the social sphere is a critical one in foreign affairs. Our diplomats and leaders tend to act as though the only possible goal of their personal relations with other diplomats and leaders is to make the foreigners love them. The Goldstone case study shows us that as Machiavelli taught, it is just as good if not better to be feared.
When Goldstone issued his tendentious report, he no doubt assumed he would suffer no personal consequences for claiming IDF soldiers and commanders are war criminals and that Israeli Jews are neurotic. After all, everyone libels Israel and gets away with it.
But rather than get a pass for his behavior, Goldstone got ostracized. Following the government’s lead, Jewish activists throughout the world attacked him for his lies. Everywhere he went he was challenged. Obviously, these attacks had an effect on him that attempts to appease him would not have had.
The final lesson of the Goldstone experience is found in the fact that the publication of malicious slander did not paralyze the country. The IDF continued to strike Hamas targets. Fear of more lies from Goldstone and his Israel-bashing associates did not convince the government to stop defending the country. The lesson is that we must not allow the misdeeds of others to deny us our rights. Rather, we must assert them in the face of condemnation and wait until the condemners realize they cannot defeat us.
Labels: Goldstone Report, Richard Goldstone, unilateral declaration of statehood
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:01 AM
3 Comments:
Goldstone is part of the lying web that was displayed for all to see by the wikileaks. His public collapse reminds us that public pronouncements are not what the movers and shakers are saying among themselves. The wikileaks revealed that normal people were not buying the lies, even though they were playing along to kiss up to the world's oil producers. So I guess Goldstone just couldn't hold up his fraud.
Israel did great with this process. However, I still think there are a couple of *factual* areas concerning which Israel could put together more presentation materials for supporters to use/link to.
The problem is Israel's leaders spend far too much time genuflecting and fawning before the world instead of defending Israel's interests and serving notice it will make no concessions to those who seek to do them harm - that is to talk in the language of Jewish rights rather talk than in the language of concessions.
Agreeing to commit national suicide won't win over the Europeans and Obama to Israel's side. In life, a principled defeat is better than a pusillanimous victory. The Palestinians are going to win in the UN - what Israel should be doing is taking action to make their behavior prohibitive.
If not now, when?
carl,
the problem is...the rest of the jew hating crowd, hang among themselves
take a look at jvp trying to use hillel as an umbrella
they were denied
did they feel bad?
did they apologize for the behavior that caused their shunning?
nope
they went on the attack...got a worthless petition signed
they dont wish to be a part of the jewish community...so being shunned by that community, doesnt bother them
one cannot hurt a sociopath
i dont believe that it was shunning that turned goldstone
i think for a long while, he was very comfortable hanging with the israel hate club...and the other jews that belong to it.
i dont even think he turned...one who still blames the victim has not really changed his mind
its like the abusive husband who says to the wife...if you hadnt spilled the juice, i wouldnt have had to smack you around so much
but there is no reason to capitulate to the world either
i say, show them the hand...and keep building baby
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