OPINION AND ANALYSIS
Week Ending 21 January 2015
- Chomsky: Paris attacks show hypocrisy of West’s outrage
Noam Chomsky, CNN, 20 January 2015
The more we can blame some crimes on enemies, the greater the outrage; the greater our responsibility for crimes — and hence the more we can do to end them — the less the concern, tending to oblivion or even denial. Contrary to the eloquent pronouncements, it is not the case that “Terrorism is terrorism. There’s no two ways about it.” There definitely are two ways about it: theirs versus ours. And not just terrorism.
2. The ICC decision to open a preliminary examination: Cause for concern, not panic
Pnina Sharvit Baruch, Institute for National Security Studies, 19 January 2015
Once the position was adopted that “Palestine” is a state that can join the Rome Statute, it was clear that a Palestinian request to carry out an investigation of the events would be met. Israel should respond calmly and determine the correct course of action in order to minimize the damages of such an examination and increase the chances of preventing an actual investigation. Harsh responses, even if they are related to the election campaign in Israel, are not the correct path.
3. Je suis Charlie? Maybe. Je suis Juif? Not really.
Abigail R. Esman, Gatestone Institute, 18 January 2015
Comparing Israel, the sole democracy in the Middle East and a country regularly subjected to terrorist attacks, to the Islamic State would be surreal under any circumstances; but even more so when four European Jews have just been killed by Muslims, and when IS has not only applauded their murders but called on Muslims everywhere to commit more. But it is not, it turns out, inexplicable.
4. Charlie Hebdo and the murders in France: Islam is not the problem
Eric Davis, Daily Maverick, 14 January 2015
The horrific murders carried out this week against the staff of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, and at a Kosher supermarket in Paris, follow a number of attacks carried out in the name of Islam. These include attacks by individuals, such as the attack on a cafe in Sydney Australia, and the Canadian parliament in Ottawa. Is this violence rooted in Islam, or do we need recourse to a larger narrative to understand what is taking place?
5. Open letter to the French President
Palestinian journalist, Gatestone Institute, 14 January 2015
Undoubtedly, you are unaware of the fact that President Abbas is personally responsible for punishing Palestinian journalists who dare to criticize him or express their views in public. Every day we see that the Western media, including French newspapers and magazines, does not care about such violations unless they are committed by Israel. President Abbas’s participation in the rally is an insult to the victims of the terror attacks. It is also an insult to Western values, including freedom of expression and democracy.
6. Paris marches against hatred and intolerance
J Brooks Spector, Daily Maverick, 12 January 2015
They came in their millions to march in Paris and beyond to prove that they had not been cowed by the acts of a small band of murderous thugs acting in the name of religion.
7. Winning the battle, losing the war
David Wood, Huffington Post, 12 January 2015
Recall that “winning” doesn’t mean a continuous stream of air strikes, but building outposts of stability across the tortured landscapes of North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
8. A Million Muslim March
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, New York Observer, 8 January 2015
The amount of violence in the name of Islam has hit staggering proportions. It’s overwhelming. It’s so intolerable. And yet it’s so commonplace that we are slowly becoming inured to it. We think nothing of reading that 145 innocent Islamic children are murdered by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan. We turn the next page when we read that 50 people in Baghdad were blown to smithereens. But the atrocities in Paris wake us up because it reminds us that Islamic terrorism is a threat to Western civilization itself.
9. Why Political Islam is winning
Charles Hill, Politico Magazine, 28 December 2014
The most dramatic question of all: Political Islam may well be incompatible with modernity, but what if it is modernity that is failing in the world today, while political Islam is succeeding?
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