Gerald Steinberg Of NGO-Monitor Responds To Andrew Sullivan

In Andrew Sullivan: Assault On The Written Word, I responded to Andrew Sullivan's response to Robert Bernstein's critique of Human Rights Watch.

Here is a copy of a letter sent by Gerald Steinberg of NGO-Monitor to Andrew Sullivan

Mr. Sullivan,

In his oped, Robert Bernstein criticized HRW on many aspects, but the responses defending HRW focus on "open vs, closed societies". Before answering your critique on this point, here are two of Bernstein's dimensions that have been largely ignored:

1) "Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective on a conflict in which Israel has been repeatedly attacked by Hamas and Hezbollah, organizations that go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields. These groups are supported by the government of Iran, which has openly declared its intention not just to destroy Israel but to murder Jews everywhere. This incitement to genocide is a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."

2) "Leaders of Human Rights Watch know that Hamas and Hezbollah chose to wage war from densely populated areas, deliberately transforming neighborhoods into battlefields. They know that more and better arms are flowing into both Gaza and Lebanon and are poised to strike again. ...."

On the question of whether HRW focuses grossly disproportionate resources to target Israel, "helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state", simply counting publications from the Middle East division is very misleading. Some HRW statements are "fire and forget", while others (mainly when Israel is the target) are accompanied by major marketing campaigns. HRW issued four lengthy and largely fictitious "research reports" condemning Israel in six months -- each with a press conference at the American Colony Hotel (the hub of the Palestinian media campaign) in Jerusalem, numerous one-on-one press interviews, and meetings with diplomats. In contrast, most of the statements on the Saudi, Egypt, etc. are quickly buried, with no UN investigations , sanctions or ICC action. The token report on Hamas rocket attacks (HRW's artificial "balance" and involving no research) appeared six months after the war ended, with no mention of Iranian support and weapons. A week later, HRW held another press conference which generated far more attention via the sensational (and fabricated) charge that the IDF killed Palestinian civilians waving white flags. The Hamas rocket report, like HRW's criticism of Hezbollah in 2006, was immediately forgotten.

None of this means that violations by Israel and other democratic societies involved in dirty asymmetric warfare should be ignored. But this is far from the grossly disproportionate targeting of Israel by HRW's biased Middle East division, which, among other damage, is responsible for the total devaluation of universal human rights norms.

Technorati Tag: Human Rights Watch and HRW and Andrew Sullivan.