The apparent inability of Israeli leaders to see their actions as others see them – that is to say, to put themselves in other people's shoes – may partly explain the depth of the outrage with which they greeted the Goldstone report on last January's Gaza conflict. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu seems to have been genuinely taken aback by the UN inquiry's hard-hitting conclusions, in particular its recommendations about the investigation of individual Israeli responsibility for possible war crimes.
What Netanyahu, former prime minister Ehud Olmert, opposition leader Tzipi Livni, defence minister Ehud Barak and rightwingers such as foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman viewed as a fully justified act of self-defence in the face of relentless Palestinian rocket attacks was seen by much of the world, despite Israel's ban on media access, as an appalling, disproportionate assault on a defenceless civilian population. Gaza did enormous damage to Israel's reputation and interests – but it is unclear, even now, whether this is fully understood in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
