Infamous Goldstone has admitted that there was a difference between Israel and Hamas. Israel did not intentionally target civilians in the Gaza war as the UN report carrying his name alleged while Hamas did.

Our report found evidence of potential war crimes and “possibly crimes against humanity” by both Israel and Hamas. That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.

The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.

Does that mean that the man is afraid to meet his maker? He should be but it is doubtful he is.

True, he is not getting any younger but he is too dishonorable to do what Alan Dershowitz magnanimously suggests, that he try to save himself through Tshuva (repentance). Unfortunately, he is not capable of such a serious reconsideration. His mea culpa is apparently useful in preventing Israelis traveling abroad from being arrested by zealous publicity seeking judges for war crimes. Good. They did not deserve to have that sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.

But Tshuva? the man is already busy recanting his recanting:

South African jurist Richard Goldstone said yesterday that he did not plan to seek nullification of his highly critical UN report on Israel's 2008-09 offensive in the Gaza Strip . . . .

This despite the fact that the notorious Human Rights council announced that"it will continue to treat the report as a legitimate working document" unless Goldstone formally requests that it be withdrawn. Last month the majority of the Council voted to pass the report to the UNGA recommending that the UNSC submit it to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court. To stop the submission, the US would have to veto it.

In the meantime, this modern"blood libel" is continuing secreting its poison and Goldstone remains the contemptible, silly jurist who used his Jewishness to give credibility to a report based on the terrorist Hamas testimony and the willful exclusion of the contrary testimony offered by Col. Richard Kemp, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan and a recognized military expert on terrorists who hide among civilians, who said:

From my knowledge of the IDF and from the extent to which I have been following the current operation, I don’t think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza.…

Hamas factor in the uses of the population as a major part of their defensive plan. So even though as I say, Israel, the IDF, has taken enormous steps… to reduce civilian casualties, it is impossible, it is impossible to stop that happening when the enemy has been using civilians as a human shield.

So, no, the Goldstone partial mea culpa does not even constitute the beginning of Tshuva.

Also see, The Limits of Forgiveness