Be Careful….
Sometimes watching the news can’t be very good for your health — at least not your blood pressure, as Ra’anana Ramblings found out the hard way.
The other day I talked about the possibility that arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar might be released from jail in exchange for our kidnapped soldiers in Lebanon. Last night I saw an interview on Sky News (from Britain) with Smadar Haran Kaiser, whose husband and daughter Kuntar so viciously murdered.
She said that Kuntar was not her prisoner, and that it wasn’t up to her to decide what to do with him, that it was our government’s job.
Aside from this woman’s grace and dignity, something else from this report stood out for me. After the interview, the reporter kept discussing Kuntar’s crimes…but kept saying things like “crimes that many Israelis feel are too terrible allow him to be released” and “according to Israel, his actions should keep him in jail forever”, etc.
What is all this “according to Israel” garbage? Is the hatred of Israel in the UK so intense that Kuntar’s murder of a helpless man and his 4-yr-old daughter can’t be objectively considered evil? Must any report of his horrific actions be qualified with those phrases to make it clear that it’s only in the eyes of Israelis that Kuntar is human filth, not fit to live- and that the rest of the world isn’t quite sure?
Really made me angry.
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life…
Gavriel’s trying to think positive…well, sort of.
Sure, Iran may be only several months away from acquiring a nuclear weapon. And of course that means Iran may also be precisely several months and one day away from using it.
Sure, the Pope has sent a message that religion and violence don’t mix, and been greeted with an Islamic response not unlike the retort one would expect from Moe if Curly complained he was too violent — pick two fingers.
Sure, U.S. Democrats and Republicans appear about as capable of forming a coherent policy on the War in Iraq as Unger and Madison were of settling on a single style of interior decoration.
Sure, more people in the world believe in the tooth fairy than believe that the Twin Towers were brought down by Muslim dissident, Osama Bin Laden — especially since Islam is known to be a Religion of Peace such that no Muslim would ever do such a thing; although, Muslims would of course have no problem celebrating such an act and threatening more of same.
Sure, Israel still has Hizballah’s missiles to her north, Palestinians busy digging smuggling tunnels for Hamas-bound advanced rockets to her south, that giant glowing Iranian missile to her east, and, looming somewhere off to Israel’s west, Jacques Chirac, the French Foreign Minister and even farther off, Kofi Anan.
But look on the bright side. With all this other troubling news to dwell on, at least we’ve been able to ignore that scary old Bird Flu for awhile. Which means I can temporarily pause in my stockpiling of water bottles, surgical masks, and miniature pigeon-pooper-scoopers.
Right?
Save Darfur
Israelis can’t help noticing how much attention gets paid to events in this part of the world…and by contrast, how little attention some terrible events in other parts of the world are getting. And Jews everywhere have been particularly horrified by what is going on in Darfur.
World marches to save Darfur, announces Independent. No, let’s not get excited – the world mentioned in that headline is not marching on the way to Sudan. Not yet, and not in the near future. It makes many people feel that they have really done something worthwhile, that marching for an hour or two – all the time in the vicinity of a pub or restaurant, under watchful eye of the police. Good for one’s health, too. I don’t want to sound more cynical than I am (which is difficult to achieve anyway), but the usefulness of these marches is very doubtful. It is the corridors of power where the fate of Darfur is being decided.
“It is over three years since Darfur first came to the attention of the Western world,” says BBC under a less optimistic headline No end in sight to Darfur troubles. The ever careful BBC offers a conservative estimate: “Tens of thousands of people, probably many more, died.” Independent quotes 300,000 as the number of victims. There are some indications that even the latter estimate is on the low side.
Meanwhile, the government of Sudan is stalling any diplomatic initiative, blaming the Western countries in attempts to re-colonize Sudan, using the cheapest slogans with tacit support from the usual suspects.
Speaking in Havana, at a meeting of non-aligned nations, Mr Bashir said: “We don’t want the United Nations back to Sudan, no matter the conditions.” He has likened a UN force in Darfur to “Western colonisation” and has vowed to personally lead the “jihad” against it.
Once the magic J word sounded, there is no doubt that it will work its way to the hearts and minds of many totalitarian rulers, so richly represented in Havana. But let’s not overestimate their power. With all due respect to Mahmoud The Mad, Hugo the oil drunk and their ilk, the real powers still could do more, much more to stop the insanity in Sudan. Even if the august bodies in charge of UN terminology still bicker about applicability of the term “genocide” to Darfur (of course, what Israel does in the occupied territories is much easier to call genocide for some reason).
But the powers that be seem strangely unable to give birth to a decision on Sudan, and BBC gives a hint about the reasons.
American or European sanctions would undoubtedly hurt but Sudan still has good friends in the Middle East and most of the country’s oil is bought by China, which has a less than perfect human rights record.
Strangely, it is the Indy that is more forceful on the subject:
Mr Blair and President George Bush have also been trying to persuade China, one of Sudan’s strongest allies, to use its influence to change Mr Bashir’s mind. China has lucrative oil ties to Sudan and, along with another country with economic links, Russia, refused to vote for the recent UN resolution to send in peacekeepers.
So, it is Russia and China again. Just like with Iranian nuclear ambitions, their goals are similar – to counter someone else’s influence, instead of really addressing a problem. Nothing much changed in the world. The Cold War continues, only the methods and the regions have slightly shifted. The main protagonists are still there, and people are still dying.
UN has adopted the “Never again” motto. They better change it to “Never say ‘never’ again”. Words are cheap, especially when used by cheap politicos.
World’s Wildest Terrorist Bloopers
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life, Politics, War
Pope, shmope – here is the definitive response to the Western World’s allegation that Islam doesn’t have a sense of humor.
(Cross-posted at Israel At Level Ground)
The Dilbert Mideast Peace Plan
Anyway, I came across the following reading James Taranto’s Best of the Web in the Wall Street Journal, which led to more first-morning-coffee time wasting, reading his peace plan for our beloved region. So, I figure why not waste a few minutes together while you read it over, too. It’s ok, I’ll wait:
On paper, Israel deeds all of its lands to Jordan – a relatively friendly Muslim country – and leases the land back for eternity. That way, Muslims satisfy their religious requirement that land once belonging (in their opinion) to Muslims, always belongs to Muslims. In this plan, Israel would pay some manageable “rent” for all of the land it occupies, including the settlements. Think of it like a shop owner paying protection money to the local Mafia. It’s repugnant, but it works. And it’s cheaper than permanent war.
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