
 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
May 10, 2006
/ 12 Iyar, 5766
A Middle East irony
By
Jonathan Gurwitz
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Shortly after Hamas scored its electoral triumph in Palestinian elections in January, its official Web site carried a video message from a pair of suicide terrorists. Palestinian Media Watch offers a transcription:
"My message to the loathed Jews is that there is no god but Allah, we will chase you everywhere! We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no blood better than the blood of Jews. We will not leave you alone until we have quenched our thirst with your blood, and our children's thirst with your blood. We will not leave until you leave the Muslim countries.
"In the name of Allah, we will destroy you, blow you up, take revenge against you, purify the land of you, pigs that have defiled our country."
Last month, a terrorist from Islamic Jihad made good on the threat. Brave soldier that he was, he took the fight against the Zionist occupation to Tel Aviv, where he detonated his bomb among a group of families waiting in line at a fast-food stand. Nine people died; scores more were injured.
Hamas, of course, approved of the attack on falafel- and shwarma-eating civilians. A spokesman called the bloodshed a legitimate act of self-defense.
Among Israel's initial responses was the decision to revoke the residency cards of three Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament who live in East Jerusalem. The English language daily Arab News carried a charming story that displays the political and moral asymmetries between Israel and its neighbors striving to destroy it.
"The Hamas MPs," the Arab News reported, "plan to appeal to Israel's Supreme Court against Israel's decision to revoke their residency rights, the Palestinian justice minister said."
That's a delicious irony. The justice minister of a government committed to the destruction of Israel appealing to Israel's high court to protect its representatives from the legal consequences of a lethal attack his government endorsed.
Hamas may have won elections. And those elections may have been legitimate.
But it does not follow that Hamas represents responsible, legitimate leadership. And it certainly does not follow that the international community is somehow obligated to finance a Hamas government when that government has reneged on the most basic pledges of its predecessors.
To overvalue those pledges signed by Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn does a disservice to Hamas in one respect. Arafat, from the very beginning of the so-called peace process with Israel, said two different things to two different audiences.
Speaking to the West, Arafat employed words of pragmatism and peace. But speaking in Arabic to the Arab world, he employed words of terror and unremitting violence.
Hamas leaders, unlike Arafat, have the virtue of being multilingually honest.
The imperative of governing has not moderated Hamas' commitment to terrorism, contrary to the expectations of some wishful thinkers. Western donors are understandably turning off the aid spigot and, true to form, Islamists swimming in oil profits aren't picking up the tab for Hamas governance.
PLO militia members who face being cut from the government payroll are getting itchy trigger fingers. And, as usual, the Palestinian people are the losers.
"There are no words to adequately condemn the despicable attack in Tel Aviv," wrote Nazir Majali, an Arab commentator, in the Israeli daily Haaretz. "Not only because it is contrary to the interests of the Palestinian people and not only because it serves the interests of the many warmongers in our region. But rather, most importantly because of the philosophy that is behind it, a philosophy that is destroying the Palestinian people. It is a philosophy of death ... a mendacious philosophy, which is fulfilled as if in the name of G-d and Islam. A racist philosophy that is based on the cruel principle of killing Jews because they are Jews."
When a Hamas spokesman can utter words even remotely similar to those of Majali, the group will have earned the international legitimacy its leaders so desperately crave.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Jonathan Gurwitz, a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, is a co-founder and twice served as Director General of the Future Leaders of the Alliance program at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. In 1986 he was placed on the Foreign Service Register of the U.S. State Department.Comment by clicking here.
Jonathan Gurwitz Archives
© 2005, Jonathan Gurwitz
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|