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What thoughts does this conjure up?

'World Opinion' is Worthless

By Dennis Prager

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | If you are ever morally confused about a major world issue, here is a rule that is almost never violated: Whenever you hear that "world opinion" holds a view, assume it is morally wrong.

And here is a related rule if your religious or national or ethnic group ever suffers horrific persecution: "World opinion" will never do a thing for you. Never.

"World opinion" has little or nothing to say about the world's greatest evils and regularly condemns those who fight evil.

The history of "world opinion" regarding the greatest mass murders and cruelties on the planet is one of relentless apathy.

Ask the 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks;

or the 6 million Ukrainians slaughtered by Stalin;

or the tens of millions of other Soviet citizens killed by Stalin's Soviet Union;

or the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their helpers throughout Europe;

or the 60 million Chinese butchered by Mao;

or the 2 million Cambodians murdered by Pol Pot;

or the millions killed and enslaved in Sudan;

or the Tutsis murdered in Rwanda's genocide;

or the millions starved to death and enslaved in North Korea;

or the million Tibetans killed by the Chinese;

or the million-plus Afghans put to death by Brezhnev's Soviet Union.

Ask any of these poor souls, or the hundreds of millions of others slaughtered, tortured, raped and enslaved in the last 100 years, if "world opinion" did anything for them.

On the other hand, we learn that "world opinion" is quite exercised over Israel's unintentional killing of a few hundred Lebanese civilians behind whom hides Hezbollah - a terror group that intentionally sends missiles at Israeli cities and whose announced goals are the annihilation of Israel and the Islamicization of Lebanon. And, of course, "world opinion" was just livid at American abuses of some Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. In fact, "world opinion" is constantly upset with America and Israel, two of the most decent countries on earth, yet silent about the world's cruelest countries.

Why is this?

Here are four reasons:

First, television news.

It is difficult to overstate the damage done to the world by television news. Even when not driven by political bias - an exceedingly rare occurrence globally - television news presents a thoroughly distorted picture of the world. Because it is almost entirely dependent upon pictures, TV news is only capable of showing human suffering in, or caused by, free countries. So even if the BBC or CNN were interested in showing the suffering of millions of Sudanese blacks or North Koreans - and they are not interested in so doing - they cannot do it because reporters cannot visit Sudan or North Korea and video freely. Likewise, China's decimation and annexation of Tibet, one of the world's oldest ongoing civilizations, never made it to television.

Second, "world opinion" is shaped by the same lack of courage that shapes most individual human beings' behavior. This is another aspect of the problem of the distorted way news is presented. It takes courage to report the evil of evil regimes; it takes no courage to report on the flaws of decent societies. Reporters who went into Afghanistan without the Soviet Union's permission were killed. Reporters would risk their lives to get critical stories out of Tibet, North Korea and other areas where vicious regimes rule. But to report on America's bad deeds in Iraq (not to mention at home) or Israel's is relatively effortless, and you surely won't get killed. Indeed, you may well win a Pulitzer Prize.

Third, "world opinion" bends toward power. To cite the Israel example, "world opinion" far more fears alienating the largest producers of oil and 1 billion Muslims than it fears alienating tiny Israel and the world's 13 million Jews. And not only because of oil and numbers. When you offend Muslims, you risk getting a fatwa, having your editorial offices burned down or receiving death threats. Jews don't burn down their critics' offices, issue fatwas or send death threats, let alone act on such threats.

Fourth, those who don't fight evil condemn those who do. "World opinion" doesn't confront real evils, but it has a particular animus toward those who do - most notably today America and Israel.

The moment one recognizes "world opinion" for what it is - a statement of moral cowardice, one is longer enthralled by the term. That "world opinion" at this moment allegedly loathes America and Israel is a badge of honor to be worn proudly by those countries. It is when "world opinion" and its news media start liking you that you should wonder if you've lost your way.

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America and Israel, two of the most decent countries on earth

Are you for real? Do you honestly believe that Israeli Jews do not engage in human rights abuses?

Here's some information that would contradict that view:

742 children under the age of 18 have been reported killed by Israeli military between September 2000 and July 2006.

Homes and sources of income have been destroyed by Israeli military. For example, in 2002 the Israeli army destroyed more than 2,000 Palestinian homes, without giving prior warning to the inhabitants, who were not allowed to salvage any of their belongings.

Vast areas of agricultural land were also destroyed and tens of thousands of trees were uprooted. The loss of homes and sources of income have had a devastating effect on some Palestinian families.

Millions of Palestinian refugees live in terrible conditions and abject poverty with no hope of returning home and many of them without any citizenship.

Freedom of movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is radically undermined by over 600 military checkpoints.

The border checkpoints in place in the area are seen by the UN as a human rights abuse and a significant obstacle to the economic prosperity and social wellbeing of Palestinian families.

Since September 2000, most members of the workforce previously employed in Israel have been prevented from going to work due to mobility restrictions, with adverse economic effects.

Families are prevented from traveling to hospitals, places of worship or nearby villages to visit family and friends.

Sick and elderly people are forced to stand for hours at checkpoints, regularly denied entry to Israel for no reason and often abused by Israeli military.

Delays at checkpoints have had a massive impact in the area of health and in 2003 the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that in the previous three years, more than 90 people died in ambulances waiting at checkpoints.

Blanket curfews are regularly imposed on all Arabs living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) but not on Jewish settlers who are illegally living in the area.

The Israeli Ministry for Housing continues to give permission for more Jewish settlers to move into the area, although it is contrary to international law.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) continue to construct a separation barrier, dubbed the apartheid wall, which places further restrictions on the movements of Palestinians, although this is in explicit defiance of a UN SC resolution.

There have been more UN Security Council resolutions criticising Israel than nearly any other country. There is certainly blame on the Palestinian side due to the acts of terrorists and I do not in any way condone acts of terrorism and granted, these do not compare to mass murders which have occurred in other countries, but it seems ludicrous to call a country which has persecuted Palestinians from its very inception one of the most decent countries on earth. How do you define decency anyway? If it's through human rights records, Israel rates quite poorly. And although it is well-known that there is much anti-Israeli bias, the facts speak for themselves. The way Israelis treat Palestinians is in no way decent.

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No, academic sources, thank you very much. I'm quite careful about the research I do. And whether or not Israel is portrayed unfavourably in the media, in comparison with other countries who are also engaged in human rights abuses, is fairly irrelevant in my view. It's still happening and it's still wrong.

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I am just passing along a point of view by Dennis Prager, Giz, and was curious to what others thought. I am soliciting other views so that I may see where others are coming from. Thank you for participating :)

Here are two pieces by Larry Miller (NOT Dennis Miller as sometimes believed) that I thought were interesting.

#1- "A brief overview of the situation is always valuable, so as a service to all Americans who still don't get it, I now offer you the story of the Middle East in just a few paragraphs, which is all you really need. Don't thank me. I'm a giver. Here we go:

The Palestinians want their own country. There's just one thing about that: There are no Palestinians. It's a made up word. Israel was called Palestine for two thousand years. Like "Wiccan," "Palestinian" sounds ancient but is really a modern invention.

Before the Israelis won the land in war, Gaza was owned by Egypt, and there were no "Palestinians" then, and the West Bank was owned by Jordan, and there were no "Palestinians" then. As soon as the Jews took over and started growing oranges as big as basketballs, what do you know, say hello to the "Palestinians," weeping for their deep bond with their lost "land" and "nation."

So for the sake of honesty, let's not use the word "Palestinian" any more to describe these delightful folks, who dance for joy at our deaths until someone points out they're being taped. Instead, let's call them what they are: "Other Arabs Accomplish Anything In Life And Would Rather Wrap Themselves In The Seductive Melodrama Of Eternal Struggle And Death." I know that's a bit unwieldy to expect to see on CNN. How about this, then: "Adjacent Jew-Haters."

Okay, so the Adjacent Jew-Haters want their own country. Oops, just one more thing. No, they don't. They could've had their own country any time in the last thirty years, especially two years ago at Camp David. But if you have your own country, you have to have traffic lights and garbage trucks and Chambers of Commerce, and, worse, you actually have to figure out some way to make a living. That's no fun. No, they want what all the other Jew-Haters in the region want: Israel. They also want a big pile of dead Jews, of course-that's where the real fun is-but mostly they want Israel. Why?

For one thing, trying to destroy Israel — or "The Zionist Entity" as their textbooks call it — for the last fifty years has allowed the rulers of Arab countries to divert the attention of their own people away from the fact that they're the blue-ribbon most illiterate, poorest, and tribally backward on G-d's Earth, and if you've ever been around G-d's Earth, you know that's really saying something.

It makes me roll my eyes every time one of our pundits waxes poetic about the great history and culture of the Muslim Mideast. Unless I'm missing something, the Arabs haven't given anything to the world since Algebra, and, by the way, thanks a hell of a lot for that one.

Chew this around and spit it out: Five hundred million Arabs; five million Jews. Think of all the Arab countries as a football field, and Israel as a pack of matches sitting in the middle of it. And now these same folks swear that if Israel gives them half of that pack of matches, everyone will be pals. Really? Wow, what neat news. Hey, but what about the string of wars to obliterate the tiny country and the constant din of rabid blood oaths to drive every Jew into the sea? Oh, that? We were just kidding.

My friend Kevin Rooney made a gorgeous point the other day: Just reverse the numbers. Imagine five hundred million Jews and five million Arabs. I was stunned at the simple brilliance of it. Can anyone picture the Jews strapping belts of razor blades and dynamite to themselves? Of course not. Or marshaling every fiber and force at their disposal for generations to drive a tiny Arab state into the sea? Nonsense. Or dancing for joy at the murder of innocents? Impossible. Or spreading and believing horrible lies about the Arabs baking their bread with the blood of children? Disgusting. No, as you know, left to themselves in a world of peace, the worst Jews would ever do to people is debate them to death.

Mr. Bush, G-d bless him, is walking a tightrope. I understand that with vital operations coming up against Iraq and others, it's in our interest, as Americans, to try to stabilize our Arab allies as much as possible, and, after all, that can't be much harder than stabilizing a roomful of supermodels who've just had their drugs taken away. However, in any big-picture strategy, there's always a danger of losing moral weight. We've already lost some. After September 11 our president told us and the world he was going to root out all terrorists and the countries that supported them. Beautiful. Then the Israelis, after months and months of having the equivalent of an Oklahoma City every week (and then every day) start to do the same thing we did, and we tell them to show restraint.

If America were being attacked with an Oklahoma City every day, we would all very shortly be screaming for the administration to just be done with it and kill everything south of the Mediterranean and east of the Jordan. (Hey, wait a minute, that's actually not such a bad id ... uh, that is, what a horrible thought, yeah, horrible.)"

#2- "Since the attack, I have seen, heard, and read thoughts of such surpassing stupidity that they must be addressed. You've heard them too. Here they are:

1) "We're not good, they're not evil, everything is relative."

Listen carefully: We're good, they're evil, nothing is relative. Say it with me now and free yourselves. You see, folks, saying "We're good" doesn't mean, "We're perfect." Okay? The only perfect being is the bearded guy on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The plain fact is that our country has, with all our mistakes and blunders, always been and always will be, the greatest beacon of freedom, charity, opportunity, and affection in history.

If you need proof, open all the borders on Earth and see what happens. In about half a day, the entire world would be a ghost town, and the United States would look like one giant line to see "The Producers."

2) "Violence only leads to more violence."

This one is so stupid you usually have to be the president of an Ivy League university to say it. Here's the truth, which you know in your heads and hearts already: Ineffective, unfocused violence leads to more violence.

Limp, panicky, half-measures lead to more violence. However, complete, fully-thought-through, professional, well-executed violence never leads to more violence because, you see, afterwards, the other guys are all dead.

That's right, dead. Not "on trial," not "reeducated," not "nurtured back into the bosom of love." Dead. D-E-Well, you get the idea.

3) "The CIA and the rest of our intelligence community has failed us."

For 25 years we have chained our spies like dogs to a stake in the ground, and now that the house has been robbed, we yell at them for not protecting us. Starting in the late seventies, under Carter appointee Stansfield Turner, the giant brains who get these giant ideas decided that the best way to gather international intelligence was to use spy satellites. "After all," they reasoned, "you can see a license plate from 200 miles away." This is very helpful if you've been attacked by a license plate. Unfortunately, we were attacked by humans. Finding humans is not possible with satellites. You have to use other humans. When we bought all our satellites, we fired all our humans, and here's the really stupid part. It takes years, decades to infiltrate new humans into the worst places of the world. You can't just have a guy who looks like Gary Busey in a Spring Break '93 sweatshirt plop himself down in a coffee shop in Kabul and say "Hiya, boys. Gee, I sure would like to meet that bin Laden fella." Well, you can, but all you'd be doing is giving the bad guys a story they'll be telling for years.

4) "These people are poor and helpless, and that's why they're angry at us."

Uh-huh, and Jeffrey Dahmer's frozen head collection was just a desperate cry for help. The terrorists and their backers are richer than Elton John and, ironically, a good deal less annoying. The poor helpless people, you see, are the villagers they tortured and murdered to stay in power. Mohamed Atta, one of the evil scumbags who steered those planes into the killing grounds (I'm sorry, one of the "alleged hijackers," according to CNN-they stopped using the word "terrorist," you know), is the son of a Cairo surgeon. But you knew this, too. In the sixties and seventies, all the pinheads marching against the war were upper-middle-class college kids who grabbed any cause they could think of to get out of their final papers and spend more time drinking. At least, that was my excuse. It's the same today. Take the Anti-Global-Warming (or is it World Trade? Oh-who-knows-what-the-hell-they-want demonstrators) They all charged their black outfits and plane tickets on dad's credit card(!) before driving to the airport in their SUV's.

5) "Any profiling is racial profiling."

Who's killing us here, the Norwegians? Just days after the attack, the New York Times had an article saying dozens of extended members of the gazillionaire bin Laden family living in America were afraid of reprisals and left in a huff, never to return to studying at Harvard and using too much Drakkar. I'm crushed. I think we're all crushed. Please come back. With a cherry on top? Why don't they just change their names, anyway? It's happened in the past. Think about it. How many Adolfs do you run into these days? Shortly after that, I remember watching TV with my jaw on the floor as a government official actually said, "That little old grandmother from Sioux City could be carrying something." Okay, how about this: No, she couldn't. It would never be the grandmother from Sioux City. Is it even possible? What are the odds? Winning a hundred Powerball lotteries in a row? A thousand? A million? And now a Secret Service guy has been tossed off a plane and we're all supposed to cry about it because he's an Arab? Didn't it have the tiniest bit to do with the fact that he filled out his forms incorrectly — three times? And then left an Arab history book on his seat as he strolled off the plane? And came back? Armed? Let's please all stop singing "We Are the World" for a minute and think practically. I don't want to be sitting on the floor in the back of a plane four seconds away from hitting Mt. Rushmore and turn, grinning, to the guy next to me to say, "Well, at least we didn't offend them."

SO HERE'S what I resolve for the New Year:

Never to forget our murdered brothers and sisters.

Never to let the relativists get away with their immoral thinking.

After all, no matter what your daughter's political science professor says, we didn't start this.

Have you seen that bumper sticker that says, "No More Hiroshimas"? I wish I had one that says, "You First. No More Pearl Harbors."

Remember, I did not write these essays, but I tend to agree with them, mostly. That is why I looking for alternate views. Have fun!

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I personally firmly believe that Amrica and Israel are two of the most decent countries on Earth. These two countries are civilised world and I hope they will be strong for a long time. I think that the muslim dictatorships are the real danger, fior the world and for their own citizens.

I also fully agree with Marc´s first post.

:bow:

I am having breakfast and will read the rest later on.

Thank you, Marc, this is very interesting.

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I just read the second post, by Larry Miller. I couldn´t agree more. :bow: :bow:

And specially with this. :bow:

SO HERE'S what I resolve for the New Year:

Never to forget our murdered brothers and sisters.

Never to let the relativists get away with their immoral thinking.

After all, no matter what your daughter's political science professor says, we didn't start this.

Have you seen that bumper sticker that says, "No More Hiroshimas"? I wish I had one that says, "You First. No More Pearl Harbors."

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That second article you posted is seriously bad Marc, so terribly biased! It's not as simple as that, is it? Just the bad Arabs doing all their bad deeds? It takes two, and as long as they cannot come to an agreement, this issue will never be resolved, remember, it has been going on for around 50 years.

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There's so much to comment on here...

The history of "world opinion" regarding the greatest mass murders and cruelties on the planet is one of relentless apathy.

(...)

or the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their helpers throughout Europe;

so... nothing was done about that?

funny, I learned in school that there was such a thing as the second World War... ever heard of it?

Big war in Europe and Asia... some 60 million deaths (50 million of those civillians)

and after the war there were the Nuremberg trials, where most of the Nazis were executed or imprisoned for their crimes...

about most of the other examples I can only say that the so-called "World Opinion" (more "Opinion of the Industrialist West") couldn't do something about these massacres, because they simply didn't know anything about it before it already happened...

(of course there are contrary examples)

I think the "World Opinion Headquartes" is in France.

Would You care to explain that, please? :confused:

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Listen carefully: We're good, they're evil, nothing is relative.

isn't that a little bit (or a lot) racistic? So if I would guess that "We" are North America, Western Europe, Australia and Japan that would make around 1 billion "good guys" and 5 billion "Bad guys"?

... (no words)

Limp, panicky, half-measures lead to more violence. However, complete, fully-thought-through, professional, well-executed violence never leads to more violence because, you see, afterwards, the other guys are all dead.

That's right, dead. Not "on trial," not "reeducated," not "nurtured back into the bosom of love." Dead. D-E-Well, you get the idea.

... and the world is a safer place!

because everybody knows that when they say or do something against the great military powers they can expect to get wiped out... just like that... no trial, nothing...

Now I feel great...

"Any profiling is racial profiling."
(the whole paragraph)

the same as the "We're good - You're evil", don't you realize that there could be some innocent students or citizens who just happen to be born in Saudi-Arabia or Iran? Of course most terrorists come from these countries, but doesn't the US have something like "innocent until proven guilty"?

Why don't you simple imprison all oriental looking people as soon as they step from the plane?

Or what was the plan with "controlled violence" no trials - no nothing?

... (no words)

Have you seen that bumper sticker that says, "No More Hiroshimas"? I wish I had one that says, "You First. No More Pearl Harbors."

That's the best one yet. It simply implies that we should Nuke all the countries and cities where the terrorists come from...

Should I even bother to explain, why I'm against that?

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the word palestinian has about as much history as the word israeli. regardless of the biblical aspect, the state of israel did not exist until 1950. it could not be created without the land coming from somewhere and the site they chose was by no means a no mans land.

i love the fact that people complain about the antisemitic press and then read such drivel as larry miller puts forward. his article is nothing more than biased poorly-researched incitement and it makes me sick to read it. i also love how he suggests that the jews, being oh so civilised, would never celebrate the deaths of muslims and yet he talks so triumphantly about the "bad guys" (do we really still want to operate using the mentality of eight-year-olds?!) being "D-E- you get the idea". yeah, the "bad guys" and the three times as many civilians who were killed at the same time.

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i would like to state clearly that i am not antisemitic and i do not condone acts of terrorism and i do not want israel wiped off the map or anything like that. i have friends from israel, palestine and lebanon (i mean literally from there, not second-generation) so i see the argument from all sides but i am inherently anti-war and very opposed to the recent actions of the state of israel.

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I kind of agree and disagree with you, in that I agree that israel is by no means blameless (and I'm jewish, so clearly not antisemitic), but the palestinians and heshbolah have done some serious stuff to piss israel off, i.e. bombing them with rockets constantly, sending suicide bombers etc etc. so, I can see why israel is doing what it is doing, but, like you said, I am anti-war, so I disagree with the way the decided to solve the problem. Let's see what happens with the ceasefire....

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I think what both sides in this fight have to realize is that if the violence doesn't stop, both lands will be completely decimated and there will be nothing left worth having.

I don't think there is any country or religion that can excuse itself from wrongdoing. Unfortunately, human nature is such that we are intent on fighting and violence to resolve our disputes. We are intent on destroying what we cannot have instead of making the most of what we do have. We use religion to divide us instead of just realizing that we are all searching for something larger than ourselves.

And people wonder why if there is life in outer space, they have never thought to visit us.

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