The moral clarity was not in place for a good while after 9/11. Mark
is mistaken here. For quite some time, the State department, in their
criticism of Israeli response to terrorism, operated on the notion that
blowing up Israelis was not as bad as blowing up Americans. Only
recently did Bush allow as to how Israel has a right to prevent her
extinction. And I'm not sure how long even that will last.
The truth is that Islam has been trying to kill both Jews and Christians since its inception. Sometimes it gets knocked back by superior power, sometimes it's undermined by the fact that it destroys any society it touches.
But somehow it has never forgotten how to keep on hating and trying to destroy.
Great Mark Steyn column. As usual!
That is what is probable based upon the name.
BREAK! Low blow, back to your corners...8 count...touch gloves, come out fighting....
I hate it when Steyn nails it like that.
Excerpt:
Just as revealing was the reaction from the European media. In the American press, you read things like: "An observer to the bomb-blast scene described a dead young girl, perhaps 10 or 12, lying on the ground with her eyes open, looking as if she was surprised." For Europe, on the other hand, the main significance of this development was that it was "unhelpful" to the "peace process". Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs. It's not that I place less value on Palestinian lives, but that Chairman Arafat and his chums in Hamas do. So does Saddam Hussein, whose government (the subject of an admiring article in this week's Spectator) gives $25,000 to the family of each Palestinian suicide bomber. So does the Arab League, which at last year's summit passed a resolution hailing the "spirit of sacrifice" of the Palestinian "martyrs" and thus licensed Wednesday's massacre. As for the "peace process", those Europeans who, just a few months ago, were urging the Americans to cease operations for Ramadan evidently feel no compunction to demand from Chairman Arafat and his dark subsidiaries any similar "bombing pause" for Passover.
In the days after September 11, we were told that Muslims had great respect for their fellow "people of the book" - ie, Jews and Christians. This ought to be so: after all, the dramatis personae of the Koran include Abraham, Moses, David, John the Baptist, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It's one thing to believe that the Israelis are occupiers and oppressors and that the Zionist state should not exist. But no Muslim with any understanding of his shared heritage could in good conscience blow up a Passover Seder. It marks a new low in the Palestinians' descent into nihilism - though, as usual, the silence of the imams is deafening. As for the nonchalance of the Europeans, that too should not surprise us: in my experience, the Continent's Christians, practising and nominal, find the ceremonies of Jewish life faintly creepy, notwithstanding that these were also the rituals by which their own Saviour lived.
But this year, when the Christians' solar calendar and the Jews' lunar calendar have coincided and Easter and Passover fall together, it's a safe bet that George W Bush will make the connection. The first time I ever heard him speak, he spoke openly about his faith and about Christ in a way that would be unimaginable for a British politician. He will know all the details - "the baby tried to crawl away, but it died, too".......................
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs.How in the world does he keep coming up with good stuff, Pokey??..............
A Pesach/Pascha BUMP for Mark Steyn!
But this year, when the Christians' solar calendar and the Jews' lunar calendar have coincided and Easter and Passover fall together, it's a safe bet that George W Bush will make the connection. The first time I ever heard him speak, he spoke openly about his faith and about Christ in a way that would be unimaginable for a British politician. He will know all the details - "the baby tried to crawl away, but it died, too". Unlike the Europeans, he must know too that Yasser Arafat could never run any kind of state: give him Switzerland and he'd turn it into a sewer.
The news clip of President Bush's response to this bombing was very telling. He paused and then said "Mister Arafat". I believe this was a signal that he will not recognize Arafat as a Chairman of anything. I also believe that the Israelis who have Arafat under siege got the message from our president, too.