'A step too far'
NGO Monitor Executive Director Gerald Steinberg takes apart the Saudi-funded Human Rights Watch, which has totally lost its moral compass. Here's the upshot: In response to extensive ridicule, [Sarah Leah] Whitson [executive director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa division. CiJ] and [Kenneth] Roth [HRW's executive director. CiJ] lashed out at their critics (they accused NGO Monitor of lying), but they have not offered any details to contradict this version of events or the systematic analysis exposing HRW’s targeting of Israel. They have also tried to sell a distinction between soliciting the Saudi regime for money, and wooing wealthy private individuals and Wahhabi religious officials in Saudi Arabia who, we are assured, are genuinely concerned about human rights. Right.I'd love to see the moral foundation of universal human rights restored. But given the rank moral hypocrisy that's prevalent in international affairs today, I'm afraid it will take a lot more than taking down Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
In terms of its budget and ideological agenda, HRW’s embrace of the Saudis makes sense, because it can compensate for the group’s loss of support from liberal Jews. In addition, this new partnership is based on a shared agenda of attacking Israel and the legitimacy of a Jewish nation-state — while more than 50 officially Islamic countries are universally accepted.
But as a result, HRW’s halo has been tarnished, perhaps beyond repair. The long history of cynical manipulation of moral rhetoric notwithstanding, the absurdity of a Saudi-supported human-rights organization that targets Israel may be a step too far. For the first time, Roth and Whitson find themselves being held accountable and answering charges, rather than playing prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner. If this also becomes true of Amnesty International and the other human-rights superpowers that have gone bad, this will mark a major step in restoring the moral foundation of universal human rights.
Read the whole thing.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:40 PM
1 Comments:
Rank hypocrisy? Rest assured you won't hear a word from the once sainted human rights NGOs' about King Abdullah's rendering of millions of Arabs stateless. That will be passed over in silence just as the absence of human rights in Saudi Arabia is treated to the background of crickets chirping. You will never hear though an end of criticism of Israel's actions in Operation Cast Lead.
What could go wrong indeed
Post a Comment
<< Home