David Bernstein of The Volokh Conspiracy examines an interview with Desmond Travers, a member of the fact-finding mission that resulted in the Goldstone report. Bernstein lists some quotes from the interview, stating:
All the quotes check out, but the quotes recounted above don’t begin to illustrate Travers’s hatred of Israel, unwillingness to credit anything Israel says or question any Hamas assertions, and general nuttiness. To get the full sense of it, you have to read the whole thing. For example, did you know that there is no evidence that Hamas used human shields or intimidated the civilian population? In fact, according to Travers, any such allegations are likely an artifact of “Israeli combat troops specially trained to operate in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in civilian attire. They worked as ‘franc-tireurs’ (literally ‘free shooters’) and could have been in a position to cause confusion among the population.”
Though one line of the Travers interview that Bernstein doesn’t address resonated with me as I read Bernstein’s post. Discussing the harsh criticism levied at the Goldstone Report, Travers said:
The best statement I can make about that is the one that Richard Goldstone made when an American spokesperson for the State Department said it was a very biased, flawed report and he said to them by way of response, “Show us where the bias is and where the flaw is and we’ll do our best to correct it.” That invitation stands. I have subsequently issued the same invitation in a Dutch newspaper and elsewhere; so far, no substantive critique of the report has been received.
Funnily enough, I did get a reply back from a most virulently, anti-Goldstone, pro-Israeli, right-wing, blogspot saying more or less, “Travers doesn’t realise that various academics, politicians and military officers have written magnificent tracts disproving the Goldstone Report…”, but they haven’t. They’ve just written magnificent whinges.
The Goldstone-Travers invitation, as far as I can tell, after Bernstein’s post, remains unaccepted.
