[(Continued from p.11)]
ruption of the "peace process," in international law the Palestinian resistance to occupation is a legally protected right. In other words, the PA has every right to shoot at Israelis; they have no right to respond.Given human rights arbiters like Stork and Falk, we offer a suggestion for filling the next Human Rights Watch or UN Human Rights Commission opening--how about Saddam Hussein?
The State Department is cooperating in this anti-Israel "human rights" blitzkrieg. In its annual report asssessing human rights conditions around the world, released in February of this year, the State Department played the moral equivalency game--and even so came down specially hard on Israel. There is no acknowledgment that the Arabs initiate the violence to which the Israel Defense Forces are forced to respond. According to the State Department report there is "sustained violence that began in September." Apparently just an eruption, like the weather, although elsewhere in the re-port Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount is inferred as the cause. And so, while there is acknowledgement that the PA's human rights record was poor (and "worsened in several areas during the year mainly due to the sustained violence that began in late September"--again no suggestion the PA began, continued and sustains it), Israel is slammed for "numerous serious human rights abuses during the year." According to the State Department report "Israeli security units often used excessive force against Palestinian demonstrators." No mention that these "demonstrators" and the PA "security" forces themselves have been responsible, according to Israeli Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, for over 3600 attacks on the IDF since September as well as the random, almost daily murder of Israeli civilians on both sides of the old 1949 border. (Members of Force 17, Arafat's personal guard unit, Mofaz reported, have been responsible for more attacks on Israeli targets than all other organizations.)
In fact, of course, the Israel Defense Forces should be criticized for its tepid response to Palestinian violence, its weakness encouraging prolongation of that violence, and thus being indirectly responsible for the continued murder of numerous Israeli citizens whose security it is the government's first duty to protect.
AFSI endorses Toward Tradition's award to ADL's Abe Foxman of the Our Own Worst Enemy Award, given to a Jewish American who best exemplifies those cultural forces that most endanger Jewish continuity. Toward Tradition singled out Foxman from among all too many other candidates in the Jewish leadership because, according to Newsweek, he was the first to suggest to Marc Rich that the billionaire seek a presidential pardon, and then--with a $100,000 check to the ADL from the Rich Foundation in hand--wrote to President Clinton urging Rich be pardoned. In short, the head of the organization dedicated to opposing anti-Semitism has wound up contributing to its growth.
Americans For a Safe Israel
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Outpost - 12 - April 2001