"The world will now begin to comprehend and acknowledge the fundamental difference between democratic Israel and the extremists who seek Israel’s destruction," said the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in a reaction to an opinion article published by Richard Goldstone in the Washington Post in which he retracts the central findings of the Goldstone Commission Report, the United Nations Human Rights Council-mandated investigation he led into Israel’s 2009 Operation in Gaza.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL’s national director, said Goldstone’s "astonishing article in The Washington Post saying he is now rescinding his charge in the UN report that Israel deliberately targeted civilians in the Gaza war is both gratifying and distressing."
"It is important that the author of the report now recognizes, as anyone who knows the history of Israeli military operations already knew, that targeting of civilians runs against everything the Israel Defense Forces stands for."
He added that "also significant is the clear distinction he makes between Israel's conduct in investigating accusations and the absence of any such investigations by Hamas."
"What is so distressing is the fact that Goldstone rushed to judgment in the first instance as to Israel's alleged intention to target civilians without any convincing evidence," Foxman said.
"Had he concluded that in light of Israel’s lack of cooperation the Commission could not determine whether or not there was intentionality that would have been one thing. Instead, his specious conclusion caused Israel untold damage in the international community and played a key role in fostering the campaigns of delegitimization of Israel," he added.
He stressed that this story is about "the continuing bias of the United Nations against Israel, a story of the unwillingness of the international community to take seriously the extremism and violence of Hamas, and a story of how a renowned jurist and member of the Jewish community allowed himself to be used by enemies of the Jewish state."