(Globes).Judge Richard Goldstone's expressions of regret about the Goldstone Commission Report for the UN Human Rights Commission into Israel's incursion into Gaza in early 2009, Operation Cast Lead, has not received the hoped-for coverage in the world, especially compared with the original report.
Hebrew daily "Yediot Ahronot" today cites a source close Goldstone as saying that he originally approached the "The New York Times", one of the world's top newspapers, to publish his article, but that its Op-ed editor refused. Goldstone published his article in "The Washington Post" on Friday.
"The New York Times" said in response, "We do not comment on our editing and reporting procedures."
"The New York Times'" coverage of Israel has been considered highly critical in the past few months. This is especially prominent in frequent op-ed about the Middle East by commentator Thomas Friedman, whose criticism of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally has been unprecedented lately.
Ben Smith in Politico reports:
'A source familiar with the paper's dealings with Goldstone says this report isn't true. The Times saw a very different op-ed by Goldstone about two weeks ago, just one in a series of articles he'd written trying to clarify and finesse the meaning of the report; the paper rejected it because it said nothing new, the source said.
That version didn't contain the crucial repudiation of the report's central thrust, that the Israeli Defense Forces targeted civilians intentionally and as a matter of policy'.