|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/full-comment/blog.html
Should Canada Be More Balanced on Israel and the Palestinian Authority?
(National Post-Canada) Robert Fulford - "Balance" implies that the opinions of two antagonists should be regarded as morally equivalent. It would mean that we would consider that Israel and the Palestinian Authority are similar entities, with similar goals and similar methods, to be taken seriously in a similar way. But how could Canada do that? In many ways Israel lives by the same principles as Canada. It is a democracy, with rival political parties. Its government lives under constant scrutiny. It has independent judges, a free marketplace, freedom of speech and media. It has academic freedom. In all these ways, Israel is unique in the Middle East. The Palestinian Authority has none of those attributes. The Palestinian Authority just installed a monument to Ahmed Jabara, who killed 15 people and injured 60 in 1976 by leaving a refrigerator packed with explosives in Zion Square in Jerusalem. A bust of him in white marble sits in a square in Ramallah. Should a Canadian treat with balance a community that teaches young people to revere terrorist martyrs? Sympathy, perhaps, or some level of understanding. But balance? No.