Israeli PM Netanyahu instructed the Justice, Defense and Foreign Ministries to examine steps that can be taken in order to cancel the Goldstone Report, after Judge Goldstone refuted allegations that Israel had a policy of targeted

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday instructed the Justice, Defense and Foreign Ministries to examine steps that can be taken in order to cancel the Goldstone Report. The move came in light of a Washington Post op-ed published Friday by Judge Richard Goldstone refuting allegations that Israel had a policy of targeted civilians during Operation Cast Lead, Israel Radio reported.

Speaking at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said he had asked the various ministries to "formulate practical and public diplomacy measures, in order to reverse and minimize the great damage that has been done by this campaign of denigration against the State of Israel."

PALESTINIAN REACTION
In the meantime Senior Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Shaath on Sunday said that Judge Richard Goldstone apparently succumbed to pressure because he could not longer bear the terror directed against him, apparently referring to the way Goldstone was ostracized by his native South African and other world Jewish communities.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri

Secretary of the PLO Executive Committee Yasser Abed Rabbo said that the blood of those Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead will not be erased by one person who changes his mind, Israel Radio reported on Sunday. "There was a war crime," he said, adding that Goldstone has no right to retract a report based on documents that were examined by the parties and subject to specific criteria, not on a personal whim.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri on Saturday dismissed Judge Richard Goldstone's "regrets," saying that "his retreat does not change the fact war crimes had been committed against 1.5 million people in Gaza," and that the group cooperated fully with the fact finding mission.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Goldstone's comments did not change a thing. "The report was as clear as the crimes that Israel committed during the war," he said.

Goldstone, in an op-ed Friday in the Washington Post op-ed, said that if he had all the information available today at the time he wrote his report on Operation Cast Lead, that it would have been a completely different document. He said that it is now clear Israel did not have a policy of targeting civilians and that Hamas clearly continues to commit war crimes.

ISRAELI OFFICAIL REACTIONS
Addressing Goldstone's reversal, Israeli President Shimon Peres said that the retired South African jurist should apologize to the “State of Israel” for accusing it of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead, Israel Radio reported on Sunday.

"Goldstone ignored the central reason for the IDF operation in Gaza," Peres said, "the firing of thousands of rockets at innocent Israeli citizens."

He added that the IDF acted in self defense, investigated its own actions and will continue to be one of the most moral armies in the world.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the regret expressed by Richard Goldstone over his report was "too limited, and comes too late," reported Army Radio on Sunday.

According to the report, Barak said the damage caused by the Goldstone report could not be undone. He also explained the Israeli decision not to cooperate with the Goldstone commission, saying "Goldstone wanted us to give him facts, however we didn't have facts, because at the time we hadn't conducted our own investigation."

Added Barak, "there is no basis to the claim that Israel kept information from the committee, to the contrary- we submitted a report consisting of hundreds of pages that brought forth our opinions on every incident.  The committee took our report into its hands, and instead used our arguments against us."

Barak concluded, "every country would have acted like Israel did if an international body came and blamed it."

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that the steadfastness of Israel to its goals of justice and its willingness to pay the price caused Richard Goldstone to change his conclusions, in an interview on Israel Radio on Sunday.

The foreign minister asserted that if Israel had cooperated with Goldstone's investigation, it would have set a dangerous precedent. He added that he doesn't want an apology from Goldstone. He did, however, continue his attack on Israeli left-wing organizations, "primarily the New Israel Fund," who he claimed gave information against Israel to the Goldstone Commission.