norman finkelstein received his doctorate from the department of politics at princeton university in one thousand nine hundred eight and talk classes on political theory and the israel palestine conflict for many years he is the author of numerous books on the conflict including image and reality of the israel palestine conflict and beyond chutzpah on the misuse of anti semitism and the abuse of history he is also the subject of the documentary american radical the trials of norman finkelstein the following is the second part of a speech given at the eighth annual convention of the howdah finkelstein spoke on the subject of his latest book entitled this time we went too far truth and consequences of the gaza invasion after those twenty two days israel tried hard to the flak some of the criticisms directed at it for example israeli attacks damaged or destroyed twenty nine ambulances israeli attacks domage to or destroyed almost half of gaza's hundred twenty two health facilities including fifteen hospitals israel said well what can lead to these hamas militants these cowards and move they were using the hospitals as refuge but then the human rights organizations investigated allegation after the end of the invasion one human rights organization two three four five six really they all investigated separately they all came to the same conclusion there is no evidence that hamas militants were hiding in a house with those then israel said hamas was using the ambulances to ferry around ammunition weapons and terrorists human rights organizations investigate a charge they found no evidence in fact israel's own ambulatory service it's called margan they that are don't they themselves publicly testify and now i'm calling them there was no use of palestinian red crescent society ambulances for the transport of weapons or ammunition even israel's own ambulatory service said it's just not true nonetheless israel damaged or destroyed twenty nine ambulances then israel destroyed thirty mosques and damaged fifteen israel said the mosques were being used to conceal weapons and were being used to launch attacks the mission headed by richard goldstone to whom a return investigated one case of what he called an intentional israeli attack on a mosque they killed at least fifteen palestinians who are attending service what did he conclude he concluded quote there is no evidence that this mosque was used for the storage of weapons or any military activity by palestinian armed groups but israel says ok maybe not that mosque but other mosques are being used to store weapons and so forth there's still a problem because israel targeted used by snipers or lookouts so why did israel target the minarets there's a very good very excellent south african jurist named john d a mission to gaza a fact finding mission he investigated this matter and this is what he concluded the mosques and more particularly the minarets had been targeted on the grounds that they symbolized islam they were targeted because they symbolize islam or that's a good reason you can quarrel with that but we all know that it's not so simple because you know those hamas militant hicks and israel had no choice because hamas was using the powers to nion civilians as human shields again all the human rights organizations investigated the claim the allegation the most respected of all the human rights organizations is of course amnesty international the nobel peace prize winner amnesty did a very exhaustive study of this human shield issue here's what they concluded contrary to repeated allegations by israeli if issues of the use of human shields and the city international found no evidence that hamas or other palestinian fighter directed the movement of civilians to shield military objectives from attacks amnesty international found no evidence that hamas or other arm proves forced residents to stay in or around buildings used by fighters amnesty international found no evidence that fighters prevented residents from leaving buildings or areas which had been commandeered by militants it just didn't happen even if it were true even if it were true hamas has engaged in human shields even if it were true it still could not explain the caught in the crossfire of battles between palestinian militants and israeli forces how did they die many were killed when their homes were bombed while they slept others were going about their daily activities in their homes sitting in the yard hanging the laundry on the roof when they were targeted in airstrikes or tank showing how the children those th ree hundred fifty eight palestinian children was hamas using them as human shields yes when amnesty said the children were studying or playing in their bedrooms or on the roof lot by israel israel was using palestinians is human shields and that fact has been voluminously documented by human rights organizations all the investigative bodies concluded that israel committed multiple work crimes as many of you know after the gaza invasion the gaza massacre there were many human rights investigations of what happened the best known probably known to everybody in this room was one that was commissioned by the united nations human rights council and they appointed a fellow named richard goldstone south african jurist an eminent international prosecutor he headed up the prosecutions in the former yugoslavia and rwanda they named richard goldstone as the head of the mission and a few months later he produced a quite substantial report it ran to about five hundred pages single space its main conclusions or the ones that should concern us here are firstly that israel that israel israel launched a deliberately disproportionate attack  punish humiliate and terrorize the civilian population that's his words in quotes israel launched a deliberately disproportionate attack the sign to punish responsibility lies in the first place with those who designed planned ordered and oversaw the operations within a few rotten apples a few soldiers who went there roy according to the gold stone mission it was israel's political and military leaders who planned and oversaw the disproportionate attack designed to punish humiliate him terrorize the civilian population some people criticized the goldstone report they said well these sorts of allegations they're kind of extreme how can we reach conclusions which are so radical problem was that goldstone couldn't reach the conclusion because this what this is what the israeli leaders were saying before during and after the attack it's not as if the israelis lacked in handor they were very honest about what they intended to do and what they did do before the attack the israeli head of the northern command he said in the next move or we will yield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on israel we will cause immense damage and destruction the former head of israel's national security council he said in the next war it will lead to intense suffering among the enemy population the the destruction of homes and infrastructure it will lead to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people jury in the attack foreign or foreign minister tzipi livni she said how must now understands that when you fire on israel citizens it responds by going wild and that is a good thing the day after the attack ms livni said on channel ten news in israel quote israel demonstrated real hooliganism during the course of the recent operation which is what i demanded and then the strange thing happened with ms livni she went to the united kingdom she got off her pla perplexed because she was certain their real hooliganism it was protected by the geneva convention after the attack a former israeli defense official he said with an armada of fighter planes attacking gaza israel decided to play the role of a mad dog for the sake of future deterrence a former senior israeli security official he boasted that israel had restored its deterrence capacity the arabs now fear israel why he said because israel has shown hamas around and the region that it can be as lunatic as any of them lunatic mad dog real hooliganism wouild immense suffering what else could the goldstone the shin conclude except that israel intend to punish a million eight and terrorize a civilian population and that the decisions were made by the senior leaders in the military i've been in the political life of israel in the goldstone mission report came out as most of you know in evolve this sterkel reaction among israelis across the political spectrum not just the so called right on the nobel laureate for peace he said the goldstone report is a mockery of history and goldstone is a small man devoid of any sense of justice israeli ambassador to the united states a fellow named michael oren some people think he's a historian mr arvin said that the goldstone report was even the worse than aka medina job and the holocaust deniers back in the united states harvard law professor alan dershowitz he said the goldstone report is so filled with and blood libels that could have been drafted by hamas extremists he said that recalled the protocols of the elders of zion he said the goldstone was an evil man an absolute traitor you could just imagine how indignant he would have been the p r actually read the report now as some of you know every circus needs a clown so long  because the goldstone report as i said was the last in a long line of reports that were issued after the gaza massacre amnesty international issued two reports human rights watch issued six reports there were reports issued by palestinian human rights organizations is really human rights organizations there were independent international fact finding missions why the hysteria over the goldstone report in fact the goldstone report although excellent in my opinion was probably the most conservative  judicious of all the reports so why would the israelis and their american supporters so hysterical and the answer is not hard to find because mr goldstone is not only jewish but he's a self declared zionist he says i work for israel all of my adult life i fully support israel's right to exist i am a firm believer in the absolute right of the jewish people to have their home there that's mr goldstone mr goldstone sits in the board of governors of the hebrew university in jerusalem he received an honorary doctorate from the hebrew university in jerusalem his mother was an activist in the zionist movement his daughter went to live in israel when goldstone was asked why did you go into human rights law international law he said it was because of the nazi holocaust and so now israel had a real problem on its hands because for decades it's perfected these ideological weapons to discredit any critics of israel and to discredit any criticism of israel so if you criticize israel you must be an anti use those weapons any longer he neutral law used those weapons as the israeli columnist gideon levy put it this time with goldstone the messenger i propaganda proof is the go to stone he doesn't seem like your typical anti semite he doesn't act like your typical self hating jews he says i love israel  zionist he doesn't seem like your typical holocaust denier he says it's because of the holocaust they went into human rights law well if mr goldstone is not an anti semite if he's not a self hating jewish he's not a holocaust denier if he's not incompetent or a fool and the former chief prosecutor in the tribunals for yugoslavia and rwanda doesn't seem like an incompetent of our full so the only plausible explanation for the devastating content of the report he offered the only possible explanation was it was true and for israel this sent them into panic mode it was just no way to neutralize him all of their weapons are are now proven ineffective there are many consequences of the goldstone report i'm just going to look at one namely goldstone is in many ways a classic  liberal jhoom a defender of human rights a defender of the rule of law most shoes are liberal that's just a fact in the united states eighty percent of american jews voted for obama among latinos it was about sixty seven percent among whites in general is about forty three per cent the only of the group that voted in larger numbers for obama was obviously african americans if you factor in income jews should be voting overwhelmingly republican because they are by far and away the wealthiest economic group in the united states but they don't vote republican jews vote democrat because jews are overwhelmingly liberal what does it mean to be liberal beings support for the rule of law support for international institutions support for human rights everybody in this room knows  international it's a liberal organization human rights watch it's a liberal organization i know goldstone he embodied the conflict now among many jews is it's no longer possible to call yourself a liberal and offend israeli policies in conduct and so the goldstone report in many respects marks a turning point in the beginning of the break up of american jewish support for israel because jews are liberal and it was a liberal organizations and liberal individuals like and the last point what should we do if we learn how to wield the weapon of truth as it's recorded in the findings of the human rights community and if we learn how to wield the weapon of justice justice as it's in body in the uncontroversial principles of international law i would want to stress the uncontroversial principles of international law when the question of the war that israel's building went to the israel went to the international court of justice in july two thousand four all fifteen judges not one not two not three not just a plurality not a majority all fifteen judges rule that the settlements israel has been building in the occupied territories are illegal under international law that's an uncontroversial principle of international law we should bear in mind what we're all about we shouldn't forget as the african american spiritual puts it we want to keep our eyes on the price keep our eyes on the prize and the prize is we want to settle the conflict we want to enable everyone to lead peaceful productive and proud  that's our goal we want to enable everybody to have human dignity and our plea in my opinion should be let's be reasonable let's be reasonable let's hold onto the truth let's hold on to the basic principles of justice the late professor edward so you towards the end of his life he like we don't want to exclude anyone who's reasonable we don't want to exclude anyone who's willing to accept the truth we don't want to exclude anyone who's willing to uphold the basic principles of truth and justice and if you embrace that simple formula you support truth you support justice and there is room for