Richard Goldstone regrets a report that accused Israel of war crimes. In an article published Friday in the Washington Post, titled "Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and war crimes," the South African judge wrote: "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document."
Goldstone wrote that now he knows that the final report by the UN committee of independent experts, headed by Justice Mary McGowan Davis determined that “Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza while the de facto authorities (Hamas) have not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.”
"The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion".
Israeli officials expressed satisfaction Saturday with Judge Richard Goldstone's regret for his report on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the UN to retract the Goldstone report:
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Ynet that "the truth is clear, and cannot be questioned"."Everything we said was proven to be true. Israel did not willfully harm civilians, Israel's investigating authorities are worthy, while Hamas investigated nothing. The fact that Goldstone withdrew his conclusions must lead to the retraction of the report once and for all."
"The biggest absurdity is that the United Nation's Human Rights Council initiated the report, and one of its members was Gaddafi's Libya. Therefore we must toss this report into the trash can of history ."
"Today it is clear to everyone that the IDF is the most moral army. I think there will be a dramatic change. Everyone understands that there is no place here for any intervention."
"All of them reached the same conclusion: There was no intentional fire on civilians and the justice system in Israel is reliable and serious, and investigates itself. Goldstone mentions 400 cases that Israel reviewed, while Hamas did not review a single case. Intentional fire on civilians is a war crime".
"The third conclusion that Goldstone reaches in the article is that in actuality the Human Rights Council has become an anti-Israel body whose whole agenda is to degrade the State of Israel."
In his own opinion, the foreign minister said, the council deals in "attempts to persecute and libel Israel."
"This organization is busy with Israel as it is never busy with Iran, Sudan, or North Korea. As of this day, there is no longer any validity to any conclusion or debate about Israel in the Human Rights Counci".
"The State of Israel is not Syria, it's not the Ivory Coast, it is a state in which all of the systems work and everyone makes decisions according to the norms accepted around the world, and according to international law."
Defense Minister Ehud Barak was also pleased with Goldstone's admission. "We have always said that the IDF is a moral army that operates according international law, with extraordinary standards in the fight against terror activated by Hamas in Gaza against the citizens of Israel," he said.
The IDF's top brass was also pleased with Goldstone's change of heart. IDF Spokesman Brigadier-General Avi Benayahu told Ynet that "apparently his Jewish morals and professional honor eventually prompted him to tell the world the truth about what happened during the operation, a truth we have long known".
"We have always felt total faith that the operational inquiries within the army are reliable and truthful. We are open to all criticism and claims and know how to probe ourselves, and we rejected the baseless criticism that appeared in the Goldstone report."