November 16, 2009

 

Letter to Liberal MP Bob Rae regarding his remarks on the Goldstone Report

 

Dear Mr. Rae,

I was in the audience when you spoke to students at Simon Fraser University in downtown Vancouver on November 6th.

In your response to a question from the audience on the Goldstone Report, you indicated that you did not support its further consideration by the UN or the International Criminal Court, and I heard you give the following five reasons:

1) The Sri Lankan Government has committed terrible abuses and it has not been investigated because of political reasons, so it is wrong to investigate Israel.

This is a tu quoque fallacy - you suggest because one human rights abuser is not punished, then no attempt should be made to punish any other human rights abuser. This is arguing like a child who declares that he should not be punished for a wrongdoing because a sibling did the same thing.

2) The terms of reference of the Goldstone Report were biased.

Goldstone insisted on investigating both sides in the conflict, and as a Zionist Jew would not agree to a bias against Israel.

3) Israel can, has, and will investigate itself.

This is no reason to block an international investigation. If Israel is innocent, one would expect them to welcome an independent review to clearly demonstrate their innocence. Once when I was told at customs that the dogs smelt drugs in my bags, when there where none, I insisted they search them to prove my innocence.

4) Hamas will not investigate itself.

This is a reason to support the report, not block it, because it calls for the investigation of Hamas along with Israel.

5) Israel has a right to self-defence.

Goldstone not only does not deny this, he clearly affirms it. However, no rights can be unlimited, and the right of self-defence is not unlimited. Perhaps one is made safer by not only killing an enemy, but also killing everyone of his relatives, including his infant children, his siblings, his parents and grandparents and all their siblings, and his first-, second-, third-, fourth- cousins, etc. However this is not within the so-called "right of self defence" It is a war crime, like at Lidice in WWII, when the Nazis butchered a whole village to frighten the occupied locals into stop attacking the German soldiers. No doubt they saw this as a defensive measure, but I hope you agree with the rest of mankind that this was a war crime.

Mr. Rae, you are obviously an intelligent person, and you must be aware how weak your arguments are. You seem desperately attempting to protect Israel, even at the risk of your own credibility.

Since you are elected to represent Canadian interests, not Israel's, and since you told us that one of the corner stones of Canada's foreign policy should be creating a world where social justice prevails, my question to you is:

How does your position on the Goldstone Report help Canada? How does Canada benefit by giving a foreign country, any foreign country, a free pass to commit war crimes and human rights abuses by exempting them from international scrutiny, even when there is ample prima facia evidence that abuses have occurred?

I hope to share your answer with my classmates, so please reply as quickly as you can.

Sincerely,

Terry Greenberg

[Terry Greenberg is a former member of the Department of Foreign Affairs Canada.]

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