Israel Matzav: Learning when to shut up

Learning when to shut up

Human Rights Watch has gotten a lot of bad publicity in these parts lately. Its Middle East chief, Sarah Leah Whitson, was 'caught' fundraising in Saudi Arabia with a blatantly anti-Israel appeal. Her deputy, Joe Stork, who has written many of the nastiest reports about Israel, including the most recent one, was exposed as having supported the Munich Olympic massacre and Saddam Hussein.

Some of you may be wondering, who is watching the watchers? We may finally have an answer to that question.

At a time when Jews are anxious about how Israel will fare in negotiations with the Obama administration over a peace deal with the Palestinians, the Stork and Whitson affairs present an unfamiliar problem to HRW: how to reassure liberal Jews, including HRW’s founder and one of its current board members, worried that the organization is playing into the hands of anti-Israel activists from New York to Riyadh. Whether or not its staff actively seek out ways to target Israel, as Netanyahu’s office claims, by appearing to focus so many of its resources on Israel—five reports have been issued already since the Gaza War, three of them criticizing the IDF’s conduct, and another report about Israel’s “wanton destruction” is forthcoming—and by hiring people like Stork and Whitson, HRW, under executive director Ken Roth, leaves those doubts unanswered. “Ken feels their facts are right, and the critics are wrong, next case,” said Sid Sheinberg, the former Hollywood mogul and vice-chair of HRW’s board. “I don’t believe that’s the way the Israelis should be treated.”

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Israel Matzav: Learning when to shut up