December 30, 2002

If not evidence that Eric Alterman does not read what he links to, the Dissent Magazine article by Michael Walzer on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does a good job of showing how damaging European coddling of Palestinian terrorism is. Walzer writes: The first war [The war against Israel] has to be defeated or definitively renounced. Critics of Israel in Europe and at the United Nations have made a terrible mistake, a moral as well as a political mistake, in failing to acknowledge the necessity of this defeat. They have condemned each successive terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, often in stronger language than Arafat has used, but they have not recognized, let alone condemned, the succession itself, the attacks taken together, as an unjust war against the very existence of Israel. There have been too many excuses for terrorism, too many efforts to "understand" terror as a response (terrible, of course) to the oppressiveness of the occupation. It is likely, indeed, that some terrorists are motivated by personal encounters with the occupying forces or by a more general sense of the humiliation of being occupied. But many other people have responded differently to the same experience: there is an ongoing argument among Palestinians (as there was in the IRA and the Algerian FLN) about the usefulness and moral legitimacy of terror. Palestinian sympathizers on the European left and elsewhere should be very careful not to join this argument on the side of the terrorists. and Only when European critics of Israel are prepared to tell the Palestinians that there will be no help for a PA complicit in terrorism, can they ask American critics of the Palestinians to deliver a parallel message to the Israeli government. Intellectuals committed to internationalism can best serve their cause by explaining and defending the two messages together 10:17:44 PM

The Jerulsam Post reports that a group of senior Jordanian engineers arrived in Jerusalem on Monday to repair a large bulge in the Temple Mount's southern wall. Apparently there was a drainage problem. 10:06:33 PM

An editorial in Lebanon’s The Daily Star argues that Hizbullah has to publicize its actions more or face the possibility of more governments such as Canada banning it. I fully agree, it should announce to the whole world how it: bombs US embassies blows up US Marine and French military barracks kidnaps, tortures and murders US CIA officers bombs Jewish Community Centers bombs Israeli embassies kidnaps Israeli soldiers even after Israel withdrew across the UN recognized border and in contravention to international law does not even inform the Red Cross if the men are alive kidnap Israelis from Europe maintain an illegal army in Southern Lebanon have a leader call for genocide So start publicizing! 10:05:07 PM

Are they sick maniacs or something else? Experts look at suicide bombers and their organizers. 12:16:56 AM