Wow, that's a lot of hands.

Now, how many of you out there have read even one word of the Goldstone Report?

That's what I thought.

And truth to tell, how many of you even know what the Goldstone Report says?

That's what I figured too.

Here we go again. All up in arms, all making the center of attention something that makes us feel hated.

It's what we love to do more than anything else.

We grab at anything that makes us feel under siege, under attack, like the whole world is out to get us.

A couple of weeks ago, the Jewish world was focused like a laser beam on the fact that an obscure Swedish newspaper made the absurd claim that Israeli soldiers were harvesting the organs of Palestinians.

No one, not even in Sweden, took it seriously. Except for the Israeli government and the world Jewish community which made a huge stink about it, which then brought it to the attention of an otherwise oblivious world, and which needlessly antagonized the government of Sweden.

And now, we're doing the same nutty thing with the Goldstone Report. If you aren't sure what's in the report and only sure that it's anti-Semitic and shows how hateful the world is towards the Jews, the report was one commissioned by the United Nations after the Gaza war this past winter.

Its conclusion: that both Israel and Hamas were guilty of war crimes.

That in regard to Israel is, of course, nuts. And what sane people do when something nutty is said is ignore it.

But that's not the Jewish way. Ever since the Goldstone Report was issued, the government of Israel and the world Jewish community have focused on virtually nothing else, talked about it endlessly, made an enormous deal out of it.

All for a report nobody cares about, almost nobody has heard of, that will make no difference, and that would have simply faded away in total irrelevance. If we had just kept our mouths shut.

A report that would have been discussed for a short time by the UN Human Rights Council, which no one takes seriously, and that even if it would have been brought to the United Nations Security Council, which is far from certain, would certainly have been vetoed by the United States and so had no repercussions at all for Israel.

Instead, it was one boneheaded, childish move by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu after another. Starting from the very beginning.

When the Goldstone Commission was first announced, Bibi immediately announced that Israel would not cooperate with it, would not let it talk to any Israeli officials, would provide no information, would have nothing to do with it.

That, my friends, is today's Jewish way. We are really big lately into boycotting. Anyone or anything that in any way isn't totally what we want, we boycott. Just like belligerent children.

A new left wing Jewish lobbying group holds a convention in Washington, one addressed by the National Security Advisor to the president of the United States, but boycotted by the Israeli Ambassador to the United States. Why? Because the group's positions are not Bibi's positions and so, boycott. Even more disgustingly, the reason given for the ambassador not going to this pro-Israel group is because, said the Israeli embassy, its viewpoint may "impair the interests of Israel."

Hear that all you American Jews out there? The ambassador of Israel to this country, who is supposed to represent the Jewish state to all American Jews, has taken on himself to decide that American Jewish organizations that don't share the Bibi government's view of the peace process, are to be seen as impairing the interests of Israel.

How outrageous.

And more petulant boycotting. Because China voted to approve a resolution endorsing the Goldstone Report in the UN Human Rights Council, the Israeli foreign minister boycotted the big party the Chinese Embassy in Israel threw to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic.

We love to boycott anyone who doesn't always do everything we wish. And so, though China is the biggest country on earth, and will soon be the world's superpower, Israel chose to insult it and its one billion citizens.

Who said Jews are smart?

Indeed, as I noted, the Jewish state has mishandled the Goldstone Commission all the way through. Tell me, what was the sense of not cooperating with it, not speaking to it at all?

I know. The UN hates Israel, the report was bound to be anti-Israel so first, there was no point in cooperating with it; and second, if Israel did cooperate with it, it would seem to be legitimizing it.

And so we boycott. That, my friends, is the mistake so many Jews today make. We think boycott is the wise course when, in fact, it only makes things worse for us.

If Israel had had the sense to deal with the commission, it would have been able to make its case, give voice to its position, make sure its perspective was heard. That matters. Because the world is not the anti-Semitic place it used to be, the fact is that if the commission had heard Israel's side, it might well have come to a different conclusion.

But after Israel insulted it, and then didn't share its views with it, of course, it wasn't going to be real inclined to Israel's way. And if Israel had cooperated, even if the report still would have slammed Israel, at the very least, the Israeli perspective would have been on the record, would have been part of the report. That matters too.

By not cooperating, Israel sent the signal that it had something to hide, felt its case so weak, it was afraid to even try.

That's the danger of boycotting, of shutting off anyone and anything we believe isn't completely, totally with us, of making enemies where they didn't exist in the first place.

That's always true, and especially true considering that the Goldstone Commission was headed by Richard Goldstone, a respected jurist and a lifelong Zionist and leader of the South African Jewish community. In other words, a friend of the Jews.

And yet, we slammed the door in his face, made even him out to be an enemy, even before he started. And even more shamefully is how the Israeli government and the Jewish people have savaged Goldstone since the report came out, called him horrible names, made him out to be a Jew hater.

As I say, Israel has mishandled this from the start, turning its back and walking away. And even now, it continues to bungle the public relations aspect of it all, as it always does.

Not only by making much more of the report than anyone else would have, and so calling attention to it, but by not simply agreeing to what the report asks it to do. Namely, set up its own commission.

If Israel was so very sure the Goldstone Commission was not going to be fair and so why cooperate with it, then what's the excuse for Israel not simply doing its own investigation?

Indeed, the United States, Britain, France have all said that if Israel sets up a creditable civilian inquiry that, as Goldstone himself has put it, "would be the end of the matter."

Simple. If Israel did nothing wrong and has nothing to hide, then just do an inquiry, come out with the facts, issue a report and finished. All will be well.

But, of course, that would take a mature people to do, would take an Israeli government without a chip on its shoulder, sure that everyone is out to get the Jews.

Indeed, to show just how childish the Bibi government is, Bibi, finally, reluctantly, said in an interview with the Washington Post that Israel would set up an independent inquiry, but he made it clear it would do so not because that's what the Goldstone Report recommends but "because of our own internal needs."

Neh, neh, neh, neh. We ain't doing it because you asked us to, we're doing because we feel like it. It has nothing to do with you, Goldstone, United Nations, world.

Real mature. But wait, there's more. So childish is the Bibi government, that after that interview with the Post, the prime minister's office issued a clarification to make it even more clear that the investigation Bibi talked about had absolutely nothing at all in any way to do with Goldstone's recommendation.

And I quote, "the flow of the interview makes it clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu intended to say that Israel is already examining the events according to existing internal procedures, not that it is 'considering' investigating the course of events themselves by other means."

Hope that clears it up. And so, Israel blows it again. Instead of saying, okay Goldstone Report, we think you got it very wrong, and so, to prove that, we are going to set up an independent civilian inquiry, as you recommend, to completely and thoroughly investigate your charges and determine the facts."

No, that would show an Israel open to the world, mature and secure enough to investigate itself, willing to listen to criticism, and determined to find the truth wherever it may lead.

G-d forbid, we should do that. No, instead Bibi goes from no, we won't cooperate, to you're all a bunch of anti-Semites, to forget you, we ain't investigating anything you ask us to, to we decided completely on our own to check things out and you have absolutely nothing to do with it.

Israel may be 61 now, but this shows it still too often behaves like a two-year-old.