Heretics' almanac

Gideon Levy's misplaced moral outrage

Gideon Levy is Israel's answer to Michael Moore: a native who speaks up against his own country without much regard to whether it's reasonable or not. And so it goes in today's Ha'aretz.

The examples he cites - Ibrahim Halfalla, the 75-year old man who was accidentally killed during a house demolition by the IDF; Noha Maqadam, a pregnant woman killed under similar circumstances; Salem Khaled, shot because he didn't open his door fast enough; racist remarks from Shlomo Benizri of Shas; laws preventing Palestinian spouses of Israelis from becoming Israeli citizens; etc., certainly provide evidence that Israelis aren't perfect and Israel isn't utopia..

But Levy's main point is that "if things were reversed" - a 75-year old man or a pregnant woman was buried alive as a result of a terrorist bomb, a man shot in his home, racist remarks, discriminatory practices were institutionalized in the Palestinian areas - well, then Israel would be outraged.

Mediation and victims' rights in Norway and Denmark

Aftenposten - whose motto should be: "Setting the bar ever lower for Norwegian journalism" - offers this headline today:

"Wants mediation between victim and rapist"

This headline must surely be a shoo-in for most misleading headline of the year. While it is linguistically possible to read this to mean that someone wants the mediation to take place before the ehmm rape happens, the most likely interpretation is that the rapist and his victim get to work out the appropriate consequences of the crime.

Not so fast.

What's really going on in Gaza?

Middle East analysts - whether they get paid for their trouble or not - occupy different levels of cynicism in their outlook. Most naive are European and Norwegian journalists, who believe that Israel controls the situation and can end the conflict. Most cynical are the people closest to the action: Palestinians and Israelis who have a sense of the personalities and have long determined that everything happens for a reason.

This week's events in the overpopulated yet fragmented Gaza strip - that combination of poorly built houses and semi-permanent refugee shelters that occupies superb beach front property - are far more serious than the non-Israeli free press realizes and far more complicated for them to understand.

To Debka, it's all orchestrated by Arafat, in an attempt to prevent an Israeli disengagement with Egyptians and Brits filling in the vacuum. The British press views this as a leadership crisis for Arafat, who is "losing" (or possibly "losing") his prime minister and must finally concede to the long-standing demand of consolidating security forces.

What are we to think?

Hagen provokes righteous cowardice

Carl I. Hagen said:

We Christians are deeply concerned with children. Jesus said, 'let the small children come to me.' I can't imagine that Muhammed could have said the same thing. [laughter] If he had, it would have been 'Let the small children come to me, so I can exploit them in my struggle to Islamify the world.'

(TOH to Bjørn Stærk for the translation)

... and the Norwegian media erupted in a frenzy that could only be matched by news of a member of the royal family tearing off her shirt after winning the World Cup in Soccer.

Now, let's be clear: this was a stupid remark and arguably offensive to Muslim sensibilities. I'm not going to defend it.

Ego strength and the Arab syndrome

You always feel vindicated when someone from the opposing team joins yours. Joseph Farah, for example, is clearly an enlightened Arab. But Noam Chomsky and the Jews at ISM are obviously ignorant, self-hating jerks. Once you're aware of this bias, you should take it into account. Someone who dissents can either be right or nutty, but the mere act of dissenting in your favor doesn't make him the former.

Mamoun Fandy is an analyst of the Arab media who wrote a piece highly critical of the Arab press in the Washington Post last week. This was followed up by an even more remarkable interview in NPR's On the Media.

The Mossad in the Kiwi

New Zealand's prime minister Helen Clark is so mad at Israel that she has imposed diplomatic sanctions. The reason, she says, is that two Israeli citizens were arrested while trying to illegally obtain New Zealand passports. After having demanded an explanation and apology for Israel, she's offended that she hasn't gotten one, after three months.

Clark says there is "strong evidence" that these two were Mossad agents, and that Israel - through their actions - violated New Zealand's sovereignty. Please note that they're not being charged with espionage or anything related to that. They've confessed to trying to fraudulently get a passport, but they insist they don't work for Mossad.

Most commentators are neutral about this, but I'm going to put a stake in the ground.

Same-sex marriage and anarchy

In his weekly radio address, George W. Bush reiterated his support for a constitutional amendment that would define "marriage" as something that could only happen between people of different sex. I'm tempted to be flip about the use of the constiturion for lexicographical purposes, but am reminded that marriage is something in which the public has an interest.

Bush feels that "activist judges" (the type that overrules states' rights in favor of their candidate and then disavows any precedence?) are threatening American family values, or something like that.

Norway vs. the US - profound or superficial?

As a generalization, it is safe to say that Europeans are a great deal more preoccupied with the United States than vice versa. Most Americans I know are a little perplexed by the pervasively hostile attitude they meet among Europeans these days. Depending on their own point of view, these Americans either feel as if they are made guilty by association, or else confronted by a group of people who simply don't want to understand the other point of view.

Bruce Bawer explains all this pretty well in his Hudson Review article Hating America. His point of view - an American living in Norway - is particularly interesting to me, a Norwegian living in the US. One particularly poignant paragraph:

No fucking logic at all in den Haag

I am determined to read the entire opinion issued by the CIJ as well as the lone - sane - dissent, but until then I can't help but be amazed? perplexed? confounded? by the conclusion they reached. I also wonder if they're willing to live with the consequences, which could include the case made against India for its fence, or China for it illegal occupation of Tibet, just to name a few. If the court actually believes that disputed territory is legally occupied, and that a barrier can't be justified by security needs, then it's going to - or rather should - have a very full docket for years to come.

That is unless they pull a Rehnquist - that is let it be known that this case should not serve as precedence for anything.

As I said, I'll read the opinion when the CIJ gets around to publishing it rather than leaking it. Maybe they have an angle I can't think of, something rather more logical than what the anti-Israeli attorneys came up with.

Right now I'm too disgusted. As often as I disagree with Justice Scalia I would never imagine that I could win an argument on jurisprudence against him. These guys I could clean up the floor with.

Sent from my Blackberry

The ICJ subverts the UN - not that there's much left to subvert

If Israel didn't care so much about the life of its citizens - if it were more like any Arab regime - it would be an interesting experiment to comply with all the demands made by the UN, EU, etc.

Take down the wall. No more checkpoints. No response to terrorist attacks. Evacuate the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, the Golan. Release all imprisoned terrorists.

Would the UN, EU, etc., be willing to accept responsibility for the consequences? Here's what they would be:

- Lots and lots of Israelis - Jews, Arabs, Christians, tourists - would be killed in drive-by shootings, bomb attacks, hijackings, etc. We're talking thousands and thousands. And anybody could guess what might happen after that.

- Desecration and destruction of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, the Western Wall, and probably a few Christian sites as well.

- Emigration of known terrorists to other countries, especially Arab countries.

I tend to think that the Europeans are cowardly, the Arab regimes corrupt, and all of them antisemitic. But I don't think they're fools. They don't really want Israel to give in to their demands, and that may be the whole point: benefit from Israel's policies without being associated with them.