Goldstone Recants Israel Appeals Blood Libel Report

The effects of Goldstone's mea culpa are being felt round the world.

Goldstone ought to go begging on his hands and knees to the UN and everywhere he spread his blood libel, demanding a repeal. This worm must do better than write an oped piece in the Washington Post; he must retract publicly and to all the institutions he spread his poison.

Hamas, the party of bloodthirsty, genocidal savages, calls Goldstone's attempt to set the record straight "reprehensible." Now, that's rich.

Israel asks for Goldstone Report to be repealed by ARON HELLER, Associated Press

JERUSALEM – Israel said Sunday it was launching an international campaign to push the United Nations to rescind a scathing report on Israeli war conduct in the Gaza Strip two years ago, after the report's author backtracked from key allegations against the Jewish state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that he had ordered the diplomatic offensive in response to the new admissions from international jurist Richard Goldstone, who said over the weekend that his most serious accusation against Israel — that it deliberately targeted civilians — appeared to have been wrong.

Writing in the Washington Post, Goldstone said that in hindsight his report would have looked very different.

Addressing his Cabinet, Netanyahu said Goldstone's comments vindicated Israel's wartime conduct and that Goldstone's report, which accused both Israel and Hamas militants of possibly committing war crimes, should be scrapped.

"There are very few instances in which those who disseminate libels retract their libel. This happened in the case of the Goldstone report," Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday. "This leads us to call for the immediate cancellation of the Goldstone report."

He said he was forming a special committee of top officials "to minimize, in even the smallest way, the great damage this smear campaign has caused the state of Israel." The committee will be chaired by Netanyahu's new national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, and include officials from the foreign, justice and defense ministries.

"I expect their recommendations in the coming days. We will act on the public diplomacy front and on other fronts with the international community and the U.N. in order to demand the justice that is due to Israel," he said.