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Judge Goldstone's dark past
Tehiya Barak
Published: 06.05.10, 23:55
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1. Judge Sentenced Murderers to Death
M ,   Tel Aviv   (05.06.10)
Will Yedioth write an expose about Texan judges next?
2. Goldstone is the better judge
V. R. Schwartz ,   iP   (05.06.10)
BS"D : Old, publicly known facts, a teaspoon distortions, halfway-truth and halfway-lies. This is the old recipe used by experts of political and moral calomny servicing corrupt or criminal systems. Goldstone did his job as a judge perfectly well in applying national criminal laws that were - theoretically and in parts - questionable, but - didn't violate in any way the principles and interpretation of international law, the UN charta or the fundamental human rights. The journalists or Ayalon may see Goldstone's career and acts as they want. Fact is: except for the death sentence - forbidden by local IL law, not by the world law system ... - all - and I repeat: all - competent and morally sound judges and prosecutors in Israel - and all over the civilized world - act in ways identic to the one Goldstone went. Israeli justice and law is in many ways lots more repressive and human rights reprimanding than the South African apartheid justice ever since 1945 was. It's Israeli military and/or civil justice that keeps thousands of people locked w/o proper court processing. It's the same justice that willingly still supports and applies apartheid-like, ethnicist or racial-suspect jurisprudence not only to Arabs, but also to not "100% Jewish" people and families. And it's the Israeli Justice that tacitly accepts most ilegal death "sentences" decided upon not only through the Israeli Security cabinet but also through IDF generals and Shin Bet or Mossad executives, which are called "targeted killings", but are just assasinations in sight of all Israeli justices (and journalists). And I didn't yet touch the alleged, but never seriously investigated crimes of war committed by IDF on behalf of the political leadership Let's raise the journalistic and political "white phosphorus" smoke screen. What remains is just pure political poison and ethno-racial bigotery. With an early Shabbat shalom
3. goldstone's atonement
mike ,   israel (formerly usa   (05.06.10)
no better way to atone for past misdeeds than to engage in some politically correct, high profile israel-bashing. all will be forgiven in the eyes of the world, that is if that's what is important to you.
4. well done for exposing him
(05.06.10)
5. lol pot calling the kettle black
chilem ,   arlington,usa   (05.06.10)
goldstone was wrong for upholding a racist aparthied regime, but i hope the israeli govt. can see the similarities in the the aparthied system of sa and the one currently in israel. did israel speak out against aparthied in south africa or did they send israeli made uzis to the aparthied regime. israel cant come out and talk about aparthied when u willingly supported it in its peak.
6. ANOTHER ISRAELI CHEAP-SHOT ..
NS ,   Canada   (05.06.10)
7. To #1, M Tel Aviv
Mark ,   Israel   (05.06.10)
You seem, with respect, to have missed the point. The Texan judges are not adjudicating a system of law where citizens were not equal before the law and the Texan judges didn't write the Goldstone Report
8. to#1 A Texas Judge?
Shmuela ,   New York   (05.06.10)
Will always find fault in terrorist and never fault a country protecting its citizens
9. Hasbara home goal
London man ,   London   (05.06.10)
Do Israeli judges not follow Israeli law in expropriating property, in expelling residents, in ordering house demolitions? Are judges in other countries supposed to make up their own mind as to which laws to follow? This piece of "investigative journalism" is merely a transparent piece of propaganda. If the Goldstone report had supported Israel's barbaric actions against the citizens of Gaza, I am 100% sure that the author of this piece would be writing to say that Goldstone's former career in South Africa was irrelevant. Personally I am completely against the death sentence (except for heads of state) and I would love to hear whether the authors of this piece are about to write a condemnation of the Israeli judges who allow targeted assassinations (death sentence), or whether they are about to write an exposé of the chiefs of staff who ordered the execution by air of 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza, or the thousand Lebanese in the south of Lebanon, etc, etc, etc. My goodness - you write as if Israel has some moral ground for its murderous domestic and international policies.
10. making law by NECESSity but not JUSTICE
Benjamin ,   Singapore   (05.06.10)
Goldstone boobOOOO the law of sentensing in Africa , BLACK DAY FOR JUSTICE .......and this SICkO Goldstone is a Sick Judge ! Actaully it is 73 black defendants ! Think of many more who died in the lock ups ! The number goes UP !
11. To be fair..and how many "Whites "?
Roland Seener ,   London England   (05.06.10)
12. Goldstone has not a double standard, he is a goody-goody
Stegemann ,   Basel, Switzerland   (05.06.10)
Goldstone does not have a double standard. Like his submission to former South African racists and their laws he adapted himself to the racist (anti-Israel and antisemitic) "laws" of the UN-Human-rights-Commission. He knows to be a goody-goody. His standards are clear: always comply to the ruling parties.
13. Goldstone reminds me of my father.
Joey Rose ,   Portland   (05.06.10)
Claims to care about Israel, but votes Obama.
14. Another hatchet job
Robert Sutcliffe ,   London   (05.06.10)
from Ynet. Your cheap shots only make you look bad. P.S. Nelson Mandela appointed Goldstone as a judge after the fall of Apartheid. a fact you neglect to mention. Journo gutter hacks and Lieberman team up, wow, what a moral force Israel is today.
15. To: No. 9
Sarah B ,   U.S.A. / Israel   (05.06.10)
Wrong on every count, but I wish principally to point out that expropriated property can be returned; a deported individual can be returned; a demolished home can be rebuilt .... but sending someone to the gallows is irreversible. South African "justice" was never particularly just. Judge Goldstone was a toady of the apartheid regime. Period. Full stop. "Targeted assassinations," you say? Let's look at the targets. Terrorist scum with the blood of hundreds, if not thousands, on their hands. You are free to have a problem with that .... I don't. Each time one of those targets is eliminated, the world becomes a cleaner place.
16. #14
JB ,   London   (05.06.10)
Looking back to english history i can not see anything like moral.
17. Schwartz
Moshe Rosten ,   Ariel, Israel   (05.06.10)
Schwartz, The point is that Goldstone upheld laws he held to be morally objectionable (killing) in favor of servicing the regime which gave him power. He's willing to put aside his morality on behalf of satisfying his superiors. Now in terms of your points about Israel being an apartheid-like regime, what do you say to the fact that the people who identify themselves as Palestinians never ever accepted Israel's existence and never displayed a willingness to play by its rules? It is impossible to deny that Israel wishes peace, as it has done with the Egyptians and the Jordanians. You're such a genius, you tell us how we are supposed to treat a people that consistently want to undermine us rather than to work with us and live in peace. Killing those who outright act violently is the obvious thing to do, and in terms of the rest of the people, it is obvious that they cannot be treated with equal rights when they will use those rights to stab us in the back. That's all that makes sense right now.
18. TYPICAL LIBERAL HYPOCRACY!
OZ   (05.06.10)
has anyone doubted that goldstone, finlkestin, chomsky ,soros, and other self-hating israel- bashing kapo jews out there have a clean slate? wait till the blagoyavich trial.. and we'll learn a lot more about nobama hussein ,kapo emanuel, and axlreod's escapades and dark, dark dealings.... is november here already?
19. For #9 and #14 (both London)
Raoul ,   Herzlia Israel   (05.06.10)
Israel is no less entitled to cast moral aspersions than the Brits. Your record is endless - slave traffic, Imperialism, colonialism, pre-apartheid discrimination in South Africa (I was there), anti-Semitism in Britain - the list is endless. I would keep quiet if I were you.
20. Just following orders was he?
Gee ,   Zikron Yaakov   (05.06.10)
Where have we heard this justification before? He was an avid supporter of apartheid in South Africa, and in his capacity as head of the so-called 'UN investigation' he continued his support of an apartheid regime in Gaza. Somethings never change. Of course anybody that points out the facts are out to just discredit him. I think that his actions have already done so without our assistance.
21. #18: Goldsstone Is Wrong
emanon ,   USA   (05.06.10)
So are all the others you mention. I am regarded a Liberal, but I sure don't share the beliefs of the people you cited. I am a pro-Israel secular. I may not know Right from Left, but I do know Right from Wrong!
22. If you are on the right
sam ,   colorado   (05.06.10)
If you are on the right as you say in the report that has past black, so why the United Nations made it to work with? I believe that he is gentleman, the whole world saw on television what was done by the excesses of Israeli forces in Gaza,if he done what you want, I think will becoming the judge convicted in front of public opinion
23. Goldstone's CRIME is his CALLOWNESS!
David P. ,   Central Coast, USA   (05.06.10)
Unacquainted deficient discernment is what crafted Richard Goldstone's self aggrandizing ingenuity. It's like proclaiming to be an expert on a dish based on how it looks to you, without ever having smelled, seen, learned about or eaten it in the past.
24. So are vanquished our enemies?
Ussishkin ,   Tel Aviv Israel   (05.06.10)
This is scurrilous journalism. It seeks to deflect from truth and justify criminal acts - accusations of which we refuse point blank to respond to. In a way its worse than the usual heads in the sand, thus exposing the real thinking parts, its actually justifying sticking our heads in the sand. And all the while the common herd follows this instinct, and like the journalists who "revealed" this with such glee, none of the herd nor the wielders of the sword of Israeli truth have actually bothered to read the Goldstone report. Should they, they might want answers to the questions Goldstone raised about our management of the war against Gaza. They might want to balance such questions against a simple measure - intentionality. Was it Israel's intention to bomb Hamas into submission at any cost to innocent civilian life? And if the answer is yes, or there is a shadow of doubt,then, we, this nation, must ask of ourselves what happened. Not to do this is to show that we are not willing to be accountable to ourselves for our actions - never mind someone else.
25. Sarah B.
Eaglebeak ,   Left Coast, USA   (05.06.10)
These people Goldstone sentenced were criminals. Of course terrorists are criminals too. Goldstone probably felt about criminals as you and I feel about terrorists. He proably felt he was making the world a cleaner place. With some criminals be they terrorists or just scum in general, I would find it hard to disagree.
26. Goldstone and his supporters demasked
Tom ,   Serbia   (05.06.10)
Even the fact that Godstone was part of apartheid regime and he was the most dangures part of it-part of apartheid juditiory makes him inapropriate for any international or national role as a judge.The fact that he killed,most likely inocents,most likely because of colour of skin,makes him a war criminal.He needs to be trialed in Nunberg stylyle at international court of justice.
27. just following the law?
mimi ,   ny   (05.06.10)
so were the nazis.This nut job was barred from his own grandsons bar-mitzvah.We have to learn how to deel with these collaborators.......
28. V. R. Schwartz, a rational voice thru the phosphorous...
Michael Hess ,   Charlotte, NC   (05.06.10)
...very well said. I might also point out that in the US, this will get no traction on either side of the aisle. Ask Texans what they think about the death penalty... It is only for home consumption, red meat for those who wish to bring the death penalty to Israel as long as it is for THEM, and not US.
29. JUDAS GOLDSTONE IS NOTHING MORE THAN A POLITICAL DUPE.
JEWISH DOCTOR ,   NYC USA   (05.06.10)
HERE IS THE JEWISH "JURIST" & FOOL/TOOL OF THE "I need you to kill someone for us" POLITICOS. Be they Gazan, SA, doesn't matter. THIS self righteous myopic HAND puppet, with someone else's hand guiding him FROM THE back BOTTOM UP , is used as a hanging judge by whomever used him last...he's no jurist scholar, he's a hangman. And a sloppy one at that. Enjoy your 30 pcs. of silver, Judas.
30. Wow. Talk about a full fledged smear campaign
John ,   Australia   (05.06.10)
to divert attention from the war crimes issue in Gaza war. Shame on all of you
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