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Eitan Haber
Photo: Shalom Bar Tal

Where is Goldstone now?

Why is world silent in wake of killing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan?

Here are the dry numbers (after all the tears have dried up): Earlier this week, NATO forces hit several vehicles in Afghanistan and killed 27 innocent Afghanis, including four women and a child.

 

And a reminder to those who forgot: A short while ago, 13 other innocent Afghanis were killed after a missile mistakenly targeted a residential home instead of a Taliban position.

 

Let there be no misunderstandings about it: Even though I am writing this thousands of kilometers away from the scene of these incidents, and even though we are talking about anonymous families in a foreign and hostile country, one is pained by the loss of life and by the sudden death of people who wanted to live, love, build a home and plant a tree. In this respect, our tears are real; tears are similar in every corner of the world.

 

But now, after all of the above had been said, we a have a small question; a tiny question, a minor one, something wholly insignificant: Where are you, Goldstone?

 

Here is an unintelligent guess: The world that cries out and weeps for every scratch suffered by a Palestinian child (and we are opposed to even such scratch,) the same world that portrays the State of Israel every morning (in newspapers) and every night (on TV) as the killer and butcher of children and as a state that fires into homes only to find bleeding bodies later on, that world will be silent, or at most offer some lip service in respect to the incident described above.

 

World overcome by paralysis

Instead, the BBC will suddenly suffer constipation that would halt its chatter, the New York Times will go blind for a day or two, leftists at Berkeley will happen to be away on vacation, and the professors at Oxford and Cambridge will be spending the next few days playing cricket.

 

And so, the world is silent and will keep silent. It has good and justified reasons for this silence: After all, these are not Jews who fire at Palestinian babies; it is not Israel defending the lives of its children.

 

And on a final note: No one should misunderstand, heaven forbid, and take the above words to mean that we endorse misguided lethal fire. We are merely opposed to the hypocrisy of the world, which is suddenly overcome by paralysis. And if we were wrong, and the world will soon raise a hue and cry about the deaths in Afghanistan, we shall ask for its forgiveness. We are allowed to make such mistake, for that first time.

 


פרסום ראשון: 02.24.10, 18:22
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