Second thoughts, from Goldstone to the ‘Arab Spring’

One might have been forgiven for thinking it was an April Fool's joke. At the very least, the author of an oped published in the Washington Post last Friday - former South African Supreme Court Justice Richard Goldstone - sure looked foolish as he all but acknowledged being incredibly naïve and irresponsible when he authored a harshly critical report for the United Nations Human Rights Council after Israel's 2008-2009 war with Hamas in Gaza. It seems the lead author of the Goldstone Report has experienced a severe case of second thoughts or buyer's remorse. Presumably, that is due at least in part to a belated appreciation of the immense damage caused by his misbegotten handiwork. As the jurist put it in his essay, "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document." He is not the only one who is reconsidering - or should be - what they are about.