True to scurvy form, UN Goldstone Commission members stand by their lies about Israel in Gaza

Editorials 
April 15th 2011
NY Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/04/15/2011-04-15_truth_be_damned.html#ixzz1Jag9rEEH
 
Called out by their chairman as perpetrators of a truly horrendous libel, three members of a United Nations commission say they hold fast to accusing Israel of crimes against humanity.
Of course they do, because their taskmasters at the United Nations Human Rights Council had so convicted Israel before ordering a probe of the Gaza conflict of 2008 and 2009 - and because they believe Israel had, at best, a limited right of self-defense against a barrage of rockets.
That Israel struck back after Hamas had fired thousands of missiles into civilian territory was irrelevant. So, too, the facts that Hamas waged its campaign of terror from amid Palestinian neighborhoods and that Israel gave extensive warnings before strikes in the hope of minimizing noncombatant casualties.
What mattered to the panel, named the Goldstone commission after its chairman, Richard Goldstone, was that the offensive had killed civilians - ipso facto proving Israel a monster.
Goldstone, a former South African jurist, has recanted the central lie that the Israeli government had acted not in measured self-defense, but with the intention to inflict collective punishment on the people of the Gaza Strip in violation of international humanitarian law.
It took courage for Goldstone to retract. While he should have known better from the beginning, he admitted error based on facts elicited in numerous Israeli investigations into how the country's military conducted the offensive.
If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone report would have been a different document, he confessed.
His fellow panelists remain defiantly, damn-the-facts wrong. They assert that nothing of substance has appeared that would in any way change their minds, which is the only conclusion you can reach if you believe Israel had no right to stop Hamas' assault on its citizens or territory.
Goldstone changed his view based largely on Israel's willingness to investigate incidents of alleged misdeeds or errors. A followup report for the UN found last month that Israel had dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations, had completed 19 probes and had issued two indictments.
Meanwhile, this report concluded, across the border in Gaza, the Palestinians have not conducted any investigations into the launching of rocket and mortar attacks against Israel.
Hey, who cares about that?