Human Rights Watch Watch: Bernstein Stands Firm

Human Rights Watch Watch: Bernstein Stands Firm

Last Week Richard Bernstein, founder of HRW, blasted them in an op-ed at the New York Times. The current heads of HRW responded as we knew they would. Not by setting up, say, an investigating group that would look into the allegations, but rather by immediately shooting back. "Of course we're right. Always".

Bernstein has now responded to his responders. It's no longer in the New York Times, but his response has been posted at the Contentions blog of Commentary Magazine. He's not blinking, and not backing down.

I believe that Israel should be judged by the highest possible standard and I have never argued anything else. What is more important than what I believe, or what Human Rights Watch believes, is that Israelis themselves believe they should be held to the highest standard.
That is why they have 80 Human Rights organizations challenging their government daily. Does any other country in the Middle East have anything remotely near that? That is why they have a vibrant free press. Does any other country in the Middle East have anything remotely near that? That is why they have a democratically elected government. That is why they have a judiciary that frequently rules against the government, a politically active academia, multiple political societies, etc etc etc.

Originally posted by Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations