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Path: utzoo!lsuc!dave
From: dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.politics
Subject: Re: Terrorism and TWA 847
Message-ID: <691@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 4-Jul-85 23:55:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: lsuc.691
Posted: Thu Jul  4 23:55:53 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 00:31:55 EDT
References: <600003@ur-univax> <1947@ut-ngp.UTEXAS>
Reply-To: dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman)
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 51
Summary: double standard on Israel

In article <1947@ut-ngp.UTEXAS> raju@ut-ngp.UTEXAS (Raju Bhatt) writes:
>									I
>don't believe the whole world applies the double standard...
>								After pounding
>West Beirut and having Arafat withdraw his forces on the condition that Israel
>would not enter West Beirut, the Israeli "sightseeing" force entered West Beirut
>and pretended not to see the Maronites killing Palestinian refugees.  Did the
>American public forget that or were they helped to forget?

The Wall Street Journal put it very well in this article of May 30:

	"Something seems to be missing as violence in Lebanon
	 rises to a new crescendo. For weeks now, Christian
	 forces have been in retreat from advancing Shiites;
	 the number of Christian refugees is approaching
	 100,000, though precise estimates are hard to find.
	 And since May 19, Shiite forces have been moving in
	 on Palestinian camps, including Sabra and Shatilla,
	 around the Lebanese capital... the latest despatches
	 say hundreds of people have been massacred.

	"Where are all the moralists now? They descended on the
	 Lebanese story in droves when, in September 1982,
	 Phalangist forces, moving past Israeli troops, drove
	 into Sabra and Shatilla in search of Palestinian
	 guerrillas and in over 36 terrible hours killed
	 hundreds of people, including many women and children.
	 Some accused the Israelis, in effect, of aiding and
	 abetting the massacre...

	"But you don't hear the moralists now. They aren't
	 blaming the Syrian defense minister. They aren't
	 asking for a commission of inquiry in Damascus. They
	 aren't heaping on the head of President Assad the
	 kind of hateful language they leveled at Prime Minister
	 Begin. And they appear to take no notice whatsoever
	 of the fact that Syria's brutal consolidation of
	 its hegemony in Lebanon is taking place under cover
	 provided by Moscow. After a while it makes one wonder
	 whether it was the deaths of innocent Palestinians
	 that was worrying the moralists to begin with, or
	 the possibility of a Western victory."

(Wall Street Journal, May 30/85, "Deafening Silence". Ref. CJN 27/6/85 p.2)

Yes, there's a double standard. It's quite visible in Mr. Bhatt's
misleading accusations.

Dave Sherman
-- 
{  ihnp4!utzoo  pesnta  utcs  hcr  decvax!utcsri  }  !lsuc!dave