There have been many comments on The Goldstone Report on this site. Perhaps the single most important article that dealt with its fraudulent and biased conclusion was that in The New Republic by Moshe Halbertal, who argued  that “The Goldstone Report as a whole is a terrible document. It is biased and unfair. It offers no help in sorting out the real issues.” To understand what is wrong with Goldstone, one must read Halbertal’s lengthy article.

There have also been many critiques written by Harvard’s  Alan Dershowitz, who has been regularly in the forefront in defending Israel from unjust attacks. His latest, in Frontpagemag.com, can be found here.  He notes that Israel’s new report on its investigations shows that the accusations made by Goldstone and his associates reveal that “they are unfounded or exaggerated. Of the 150 charges investigated, ‘36 criminal investigations [were] opened thus far.’”

As for Hamas’ so called investigations,  Dershowitz writes, Goldstone points out that Hamas had “already decided that those who fired rockets into Israel had no intention to kill Israeli civilians. Why then did they fire the rockets when children were on the way to school? Why did they fire them in the direction of cities and towns?” These are questions not meant to be answered, but meant to serve as proof of what everyone knows: Hamas seeks to brand Israel as the tyrannical aggressor, and Hamas as the innocent party.  The truth, as Dershowitz writes, is that “Hamas deliberately conducted its terrorist activities against Israel in a manner calculated by Hamas to produce Palestinian civilian deaths from Israeli weapons. Any fair assessment of the evidence also leads to the conclusion that, while Israel loses from the death of every Palestinian civilian, Hamas gains from every such death. As Golda Meir once put it: ‘We can perhaps forgive you for killing our children, but we can never forgive you for making us kill your children.’”

There will be more such comments, as the Goldstone Report becomes the single most current weapon in the worldwide effort to delegitimize Israel. But what led Goldstone, himself a Jew supposedly favorable to Zionism, to chair the commission and to put his name on the blatantly one-sided and propagandist report?

To answer that, I want to reproduce a remarkable letter that has been going around the internet, written by a former friend of Goldstone who resides in Israel. To my knowledge the letter, written in mid-November, has not received wide circulation. If what the author,  Roy Chweidan of Netanya, Israel,  says is the actual truth about Goldstone’s past, it helps explain what led him to end up issuing a report that will do more than anything else to harm Israel in the world. Goldstone, as you will see, comes off as a rank opportunist, a man who went from benefiting from apartheid to switching sides at the exact moment when it would help his career.

The letter, written by someone who went to the same school and had the same education as Goldstone, and who clearly knew him personally, was obviously made public by the writer because he did not get any response. I cannot vouch for the factual data he offers. You can read it yourself and judge whether the charges made by the writer have merit.  

Dear Richard,
As P.W. Botha would have said, “Your report is too dastardly to
contemplate”.  When I met P.W. on the Angolan border on the 27 March 1976,
he told me how much he admired Israel and it’s people (Die Jode in Israel).
Is it not incredible that P.W. Botha being Prime Minister at the height of
apartheid so much admired us and you, a Jew, whom P.W. granted a meteoric
rise to Appellate Judge, so much hates us.  Are you not ashamed?

As an Israeli Jew, and as an Old Edwardian, I am mystified by your
behaviour.  It is unbelievable that you have seen fit to cause us such great
damage and damage extending into the future, but hereunder, I will prove to
you why you have done this.  But first, I will prove to you why your report
is null and void.

The whole free world accepts the following definition of the intelligence
gathering process, which is the collection, collation, interpretation and
dissemination of information (information also includes facts).  The
collation phase demands that the information and facts that will be used are
true, correct and confirmed.  Any information and facts that do not satisfy
this requirement must be disregarded.  Now comes the crux of the whole
matter.  The word truth here is used in the context of the free world
meaning that it bears the integrity, responsibility, morality and
uprightness of the free world.  This is what we learnt at KES.  Everybody
who has had experience in dealing with our Arab Moslem enemies, as I have,
will agree with me that their definition of the truth is the fabrication of
a false truth to conform to what they want to believe.  I, therefore use two
terms from now on, truth meaning free world truth and Arab truth which is in
fact meaningless.  What I am stating here is absolutely correct Richard.

Remember that you and I had the same grounding at KES until the age of 17
and I know your mentality, so if you had the same experience as I do of
getting to know the mind of our Moslem enemies, you would agree with me.  I
know the Moslem mind inside out.  Incidentally, I am three years older than
you so that we had an identical school education.

Your report is based on Arab facts, Arab information and Arab truth.  In
other words, your report does not pass the collation phase of the
intelligence gathering process, and it is therefore meaningless and null and
void.  It is unbelievable how cruel and savage these Hamas people are.  They
lie, deceive, murder and fabricate with no conscience.  For example, because
they want to believe it, they claim that we Jews have no historical right to
this country.  Because they want to believe it, they will move remains of
Israeli ammunition to other places to prove we deliberately fired at
civilians.  As you have already received mountains of criticism and
condemnation regarding operation cast lead, I need not refer further to it.
Now why have you associated yourself with this report in spite of the fact
that you have a brilliant mind?  At university you belonged to NUSAS showing
that you cared about racial discrimination.  In 1978 you accepted an
appointment from Jimmy Kruger, Minister of Justice, to be a temporary judge
to the Transvaal Supreme Court.  Jimmy Kruger was often called the Himler of
apartheid.  You were not forced to accept this appointment which was made
permanent in 1980.  When queried why you accepted to be an apartheid judge,
you replied that you preferred to try and change things from within.  I have
to deduce at this stage:

1.  You are a brilliant man to have been made a judge at such an early age.
2.  You wanted to advance your career.
3.  Perhaps you had changed your mind from NUSAS days.
4.  You did not tell the truth about changing things from within, because
you knew full well that any statement against
     apartheid with people like Jimmy Kruger and P.W. Botha around, would
have led to immediate dismissal.

After 1980 your career advanced extremely rapidly in the apartheid regime.
You were appointed to the Appellate Division of the S.A. Supreme Court which
was a top position in the apartheid hierarchy.  You are known to have mixed
socially with the Afrikaner leaders.  You are known to have assisted P.W.
Botha to cover up what was going on during the state of emergency which made
you an accomplice to apartheid policy.

After Nelson Mandela was released from jail, and De Klerk still had a strong
influence, De Klerk appointed you to head a commission to investigate the
causes of violence in the country.  You helped to protect De Klerk’s image
by a verdict that Sithole committed suicide in spite of evidence to the
contrary.  You also exonerated all the security forces from any guilt during
the violence.  You found no evidence of the operation of a third force.�
Some time before the General Election in 1994, you started to change your
report which ended up confirming the existence of a third force of
government forces committing atrocities against Blacks.  You also refused to
investigate reports of ANC violence against Whites despite evidence of it’s
existence.  You had deserted De Klerk and became an ANC hero.  Mandela was
grateful to you and appointed you to the newly formed Constitutional Court.
Now my deductions will lead to finality:

1.  The above indicates that you have a brilliant ability at twisting and
turning in order to best serve your own personal  interests.  It proved that you could not have supported apartheid in your heart but you certainly convinced the Afrikaans leaders that you did.

2.  Your maneuvering to support and then deceive De Klerk is mesmerizing.
Your feat in becoming an ANC hero after a past of being an apartheid judge is more than mesmerizing. �
At last I have reached my conclusions.  You have proved without a shadow of
a doubt that:

1.  You are a brilliant man in all spheres of activity.
2.  You are only interested in your own advancement irrespective of right or
wrong, and irrespective of morality or common decency.�
3.  You will only support anybody, any group or anything provided it leads
to your own advancement.

You can see, Richard that I have done my analysis without any preconceived
malice.  My deductions and conclusions have been made according to the
principles of making a military appreciation.  Having said this, I now
declare that I am totally ashamed of you.

From Conclusion 3 above, it is obvious that you are only using your report
for the purpose of Hamas and all the Arab block and their supporters, to
nominate you for Secretary General of the United Nations as this is the only
worthwhile advancement for a man like you already in such a high position.
With all their support, you will have an automatic majority to vote you in
as the new Secretary General of the United Nations.

I maintain that you are betraying the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
You have already disgraced the name of your family.  You are the only Old
Edwardian I know of who fights or has fought for evil against good.  During
World War 2, there were 178 Old Edwardians who were killed fighting for good
against evil.

My final conclusions are indeed very sad ones.  From all of the above, it is
logically obvious that because of all your brilliant qualities, attention to
detail, shrewdness etc:

1.  You know and understand that your report is null and void.2.  You know exactly that I am right about the Arab truth, Arab facts and
Arab information.
3.  You know that the I.D.F. is the most moral army in the world.
4.  You know that we did our best to avoid civilian casualties.
5.  You know that our Israeli cause is just.
6.  You know that everything that so many people have emailed to you is
correct.
7.  You know that your desire to become Secretary General of the U.N. is so
over-powering that you do not care about  Israel or her survival.
8.  In other words, you are the instigator, architect and the driving force
about everything in your report ie: the facts have  become Goldstone facts
the same as Arab facts, the information has become Goldstone information the
same as  Arab information, the truth has become Goldstone truth the same as
Arab truth.
9.  You have created in your name a Hamas report that they cannot do.�
10. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, YOUR THOROUGH PREPARATION WAS SUCH THAT YOU KNEW ALL OF THE ABOVE EVEN BEFORE YOU STARTED ON THIS WHOLE PROJECT.

It is not too late to repent, Richard.  Declare your report null and void
and cleanse your conscience. Your – by now infamous report has done no good,
it may well cost lives. It was grossly unjust and you know that
ultimately,justice will be served.  One day when Hamas & Co do not need you
anymore, you will be left ostracized and alone.  But first, in order to
achieve justice, you have to be punished for your sins.  I leave that to the
Israeli Foreign Ministry or powers above them.

Understand my definition of Arab truth, Richard.  It is Israel’s
understanding of the “Arab truth that plays no small part in the ongoing
battle for Israel’s survival. As your future now has become inextricably
linked to those who applauded you and with some encouragement from you,
continue to threaten Israel, your understanding of Arab truth – as it serves
Israel, could play a similar role in your future well being.

ROY CHWEIDAN
NETANYA
 

Send this around to all those who think Goldstone is credible. It will be yet another notch in the important effort to discredit the authenticity and accuracy of the report to which Goldstone gave his name.