I'm asking because, in his report to the scrupulously neutral and balanced UN Human Rights Council in September 2009, Judge Richard Goldstone and his fellow commissioners said: "Statements by Israeli political and military leaders prior to and during the military operations in Gaza indicate that the Israeli military conception of what was necessary in a war with Hamas viewed disproportionate destruction and creating the maximum disruption in the lives of many people as a legitimate means to achieve not only military but also political goals."
They also famously said: "While the Israeli Government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right to self-defence, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole."
Last week, Fathi Hamad of Hamas came out and admitted that 600-700 of those killed in a war whose casualties have been estimated in the 1,100 -1,400 range were Hamas fighters. Quite a revision upwards from the original Hamas figure of 49. And who knows? Perhaps it'll be revised upwards again.
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, now says the world owes Israel an apology for what is, in effect, a modern day blood libel. If I were him, I wouldn't hold my breath.