Posted on 04/04/2002 5:09:33 AM PST by Pokey78
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.
From a prior Mark Steyn article - well worth repeating.............
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".......................
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.
But that’s not all they turned up: 43 RPG missiles, four pipe bombs, an unspecified number of empty suicide-bomber belts, hundreds of thousands of counterfeit Israeli bills in denominations of 50, 100 and 200 shekels, printing plates for counterfeiting millions more, $100,000 in counterfeit US bills....
In case anybody missed this in the article.
PINGING FOR GREAT JUSTICE!If you want on or off me Israel/MidEast ping list please let me know.............
You might also be interested in this thread, in which Bill Clinton last summer put the blame for the failure of the peace process squarely on Arafat.
It occurred to me, reading this, that this is the kind of column Maureen Dowd has been trying to write, again and again. Funny, irreverent, slangy, but informed with penetrating political wisdom and sharp analysis. The problem with Dowd is that liberalism no longer has any wisdom left. In addition, liberals long ago checked their humor at the door.
It's not just a matter of left and right, liberal and conservative, what you prefer a writer's politics to be. Mark Steyn is a great read, whereas Maureen Dowd's turgid nonsense has no style and nary a laugh in a bushel. I've heard many liberals confess that they can't stand reading Anthony Lewis or Frank Rich, though they'll never admit it in public. Even for those who agree with their views, liberal columnists just aren't worth reading. There's no pleasure in it, no humor, no style, and no intellectual return.
This is just stunningly insightful, even for Steyn, for whom "insightful" is commonplace. He takes myriad elements of history and current events and wraps them into a great summary and excellent suggestion of where this should go.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com
Freeping in front of the tube, the contrast is stark between Steyn's hawk-eye and the media's myopic and onanistic fixation on the peace-loving Pals as they flee and hide from the murderous and out-of-control Israelis (sarcasm alert).
Thanks for posting this, Pokey.
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