It’s a Conspiracy
From Cox and Forkum:
Bush’s Moral Relativism
Writes David Holcberg of the Ayn Rand Institute:After this week's suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus that killed at least sixteen and wounded many more, it is worth asking again: How many more Israelis have to be murdered before President Bush wakes up to the reality that only a total war against Palestinian terrorists will stop these attacks?
President Bush should stop acting as if the Israeli government and the Palestinian regime were morally equal. The Israeli government represents a free country, which protects (to a large extent) the individual rights of its citizens, and acts only in self-defense to eliminate the terrorists that threaten its people. The Palestinian regime, in sharp contrast, is a collection of terrorists and supporters of terrorism put together by the father of international terrorism, Yasir Arafat; it's a regime that has no respect for the individual rights of its own people, and whose main goal is the destruction of Israel.
Thus the road map President Bush is trying--and succeeding--to shove down Israel's throat was doomed to failure from the start. It is past time for President Bush to abandon such misguided moral relativism and choose sides: he is either with Israel or with the terrorists.
Attacks on Martha Stewart a Moral Abomination
Writes Professor Harry Binswanger on the government's assault on Martha Stewart:"Martha Stewart is being attacked out of hatred of the good for being the good. She is being made an example of--which is the utilitarian theory of justice--because she is 'too perfect.' Note that she was not charged with insider trading--the government doesn't have evidence to support that. Nor is she being charged with perjury: she made no testimony under oath. Essentially, she is being charged with protesting her innocence! Such protests, the government claims, is "stock manipulation." They claim that proclaiming her innocence constituted wrongly trying to keep her own stock in her own company from falling--by denying the unprovable government assertions!" [June 10, 2003, HBL]
Arafat is non-Arafat
From today's lead NY Sun editorial:Something is wrong with a process in which President Bush's spokesman is insisting to the American people that, as far as President Bush is concerned, Yasser Arafat is not involved--while at the same time, Mr. Abbas is telling the Palestinian Arab people that Mr. Arafat is involved. This is a simple question of checkable fact, after all. Either Mr. Arafat is involved or he is not. The reality of his involvement shouldn't depend on whether you're George W. Bush or Mahmoud Abbas.... If the White House is willing to turn a blind eye to Mr. Arafat's involvement, who is to say that it won't turn a blind eye to terrorist activity by the "new" Palestinian leadership? [June 10, 2003, NY Sun]
Any Country But Israel…
From the June 10 NY Sun:[Kofi] Annan was "deeply concerned over reports of widespread violence, injuries suffered by the civilian population and looting," said his spokesman, Fred Eckhardt, who also reiterated Mr. Annan's "firm condemnation of any attempt to change the government of any country by force or by other unconstitutional means." [June 10, 2003, NY Sun]
Any country?
The Real Obstacle to Peace
From the NY Sun:...the fact of the matter is that [Israeli] settlements are not an "obstacle to peace." If the Palestinians are committed to peaceful coexistence with Israel, why should they demand that their nascent state be Judenrein...?
On Tuesday, The International Herald Tribune provided the answer to this question. It did so by publishing the results of a Pew Global Attitudes Project opinion poll taken last month of 15,000 citizens of eight Arab and Muslim countries Kuwait, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Lebanon, Nigeria and Morocco and the Palestinian Authority. These results show what the real obstacle to peace is. Eighty percent of Palestinians agreed with the statement: "The rights and needs of the Palestinian people cannot be taken care of as long as the State of Israel exists." Ninety percent of Moroccans, 85% of Jordanians and 72% of Kuwaitis also agreed with the statement, as did solid majorities in Lebanon, Pakistan and Indonesia.
As well, the three most trusted world leaders for these Arab and Muslim societies are Osama bin Laden, Yasser Arafat and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Finally, 80% of Jordanians and 90% of Palestinians expressed deep hatred not simply for American policy but for Americans as people. At the same time, 99% of Jordanians and 98% of Palestinians claim to have an unfavorable view of America as do a majority of those questioned in the other countries polled. [Caroline Glick, "The Outposts," June 9, 2003, NY Sun]