Shifting From Israel, HRW Focuses on Syria

Or so it says in the hard copy of the Forward, which I picked up while strolling along Broadway here in the Big Apple. We're here to visit the family and, fortunately, being on the Upper West Side, they escaped any damage and kept power all the time. The worst thing that happened (and our daughter knows that it's small potatoes compared with the losses suffered by those who felt the full effects of Sandy) was keeping their two small children occupied.

Anyway, that Forward headline and article can be found only in the hard copy. I certainly haven't been able find it online, although someone out there may have better luck. The interesting part of the story (by one Josh Nathan-Kazis) is the argument that not many friends of Israel, critical or otherwise, will expect this focus elsewhere to have much of a lasting effect, with even the co-founder of Human Rights Watch, Robert Bernstein, publicly splitting with it some 3 years ago.

What may a bit more surprising is that even some of those on what might be considered to be the same side, such as Gerald Steinberg, Executive Director of NGO Watch, are "highly critical of HRW".

The rest of the article is a fascinating discussion of the dangers of attempting to discover just what is happening inside Syria, as the deaths of Marie Colvin and Anthony Shadid, among others, illustrates.

Hopefully, one of you will be able to provide a link to this piece, as it is very well worth reading.

By Brian Goldfarb.