Reply #7: no, you're wrong [View All]

[shira]

1. He wrote about closed societies...

"The plight of their citizens who would most benefit from the kind of attention a large and well-financed international human rights organization can provide is being ignored as Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division prepares report after report on Israel."

He never wrote that Israel's violations should be overlooked, only that HRW's disproportionate focus, time, and energy on Israel leads to less time and energy devoted to the rights of others (like in Egypt or Syria). That's a valid observation. In Gaza alone, children are used in combat roles and brainwashed to become intolerant antisemitic warmongers by Hamas. Hamas hid under the hospital during the operation and deliberately mixed with civilians. HRW ignores things like these and instead focuses on 'facts' that Goldstone admits are worthless as evidence in a court of law.

That should be enough to rumple the feathers of any true liberal committed to human rights.

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2. About Iraq, is that over the last year, 5 years, 10 years - and is all the criticism aimed at the government or terrorist factions? The fact is that HRW pretends Israel violates human rights on a larger scale than any of its surrounding neighbors, and we know that's ridiculous...not to mention that those being violated might benefit due to more attention from HRW if not for their irrational focus on Israel, which already has dozens of human rights organizations up to the task of keeping Israel in line.

What appears lost on you is that Israel already has built-in, highly critical mechanisms in place (especially their own media) that is as effective or more effective than anything HRW is capable of with their reports (which serve to demonize and do nothing more than Israel's own human rights organizations)).

Closed societies have no checks and balances.

There's no use pretending more attention must be focused on Israel than any other neighboring state.

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3. Mr. Bernstein made a great point that HRW failed to address and it is...

"In Gaza and elsewhere where there is no access to the battlefield or to the military and political leaders who make strategic decisions, it is extremely difficult to make definitive judgments about war crimes."

That's 100% spot-on, and HRW made 'definitive judgments' nonetheless based on 'facts' that wouldn't hold up in a court of law....of course while ignoring Hamas' greatest human rights violations (those ignored in the Goldstone Report that they wholeheartedly endorse).

I'm not sure why you've decided to focus on my statement "during the conflict".

And while bringing up Kemp is a good point, that just goes to show how weak and unreliable HRW's claims are in comparison. The fact is Kemp's observation is demonstrably more honest and accurate than HRW's claims in general. It says a lot when a British commander concedes that Israel's forces are more humane than any others he knows of, including his own.

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HRW failed to address many of Bernstein's points and then decided to respond to statements he never made.

Very lame.

Very dishonest.

Seems more and more people are onto their games.