The American double standard on terrorists
I could have called this post the Obama administration's double standard on terrorists, but in all fairness the same double standard has been adopted at least going back to the Nixon administration. Here's an excerpt. Obama said in Sderot that he would not tolerate rocket attacks that endangered his own daughters. If Samir Kuntar's beating-death victim had been Malia or Sascha Obama, rather than 4-year-old Einat Haran, and Abbas celebrated the killing, would Obama treat Abbas as a moderate peacemaker and negotiate with him? We all know the answer.Read the whole thing.
Immediately after being sworn in as president, Obama gave Abbas the unique honor of calling him before any other world leader, yet promises to "hunt down and kill" Osama bin Laden. Why the dramatic double standard? The apparent answer is that terrorists get a free pass-not to mention billions in US taxpayer dollars-when their targets are Jewish. Is there any other explanation?
At the same time that Abbas receives royal treatment, this administration is eagerly prosecuting a teenage Somali pirate who, unlike Abbas, did not kill anyone. One might argue that the difference is that Abbas is a high-profile national leader and therefore "too big to allow to fail." Yet Panama's dictator Manuel Noriega languishes today in prison, convicted by the US government of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering-minor offenses compared with the Munich bloodbath.
Attorney-General Eric Holder has insisted, "We owe the American people a reckoning." Vice-President Joseph Biden has emphasized, "We will not be stopped from pursuing any criminal offence that's occurred...no one is above the law." Both were referring to investigating US officials in connection with actions that included rare instances of waterboarding al Qaeda leaders, particularly Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after he ominously gloated that a second wave of attacks was imminent.
In the case of Abbas, is Biden correct that "no one is above the law?" And if not, in what kind of upside-down justice system is the door open to prosecuting efforts to stop terrorism, yet not open to prosecuting terrorism?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:42 PM
4 Comments:
This double-standard exists because the "Palestinian cause" is an international cause celebre. It keeps "suspect" Jews and "uppity" Israel in their rightful place - at the bottom of the heap. Innocent Americans killed in Palithug terror in Israel? American officials knocked off by Palithugs in Gaza? No problem. Poor Palithugs. They just can't help themselves; they're sooooo oppressed. What else can you expect?
Barf
Why should the US be any better than Israel in this respect?
"We have met the enemy, and it is us!"
It is all about Public Relations.
The Palis have the best PR in the world, Israel has the worst.
Israel treats Palis in its hospitals giving them better care than any other Arab, no one cares. Palis bomb Israeli civilians with over 10,000 rockets, no one cares.
What Israel fails to do is use a consistent way to describe terrorists as such...for instance, the Palis always talk about the Netanyahu government as "extreme right", and they consistently refer to it as such. Now, it is an accepted "fact" internationally. If Israel had consistently referred to Abbas as "terrorist, holocaust-denier and murderer Abbas", perhaps fewer people would now refer to him as "moderate". Labels stick and labels matter. It is time Israel start caring about perception.
Ashan, you're correct. The double standard exists because of the Jews. And its sickening. For example, Sri Lanka wiped out the Tamils, causing thousands of casualties. There was not a peep from the world. Israel acts against Hamas in Gaza and there was an uproar. We'll see it again in evidence should Israel attack Iran. The double standard means Jews do not get the benefit of the doubt when they defend themselves. Its tough to be a Jewish State.
Post a Comment
<< Home