Zionists Out of the Peace Movement: Israelis No. 1 in Supporting Torture

Zionists Out of the Peace Movement

To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war. —Ludwig von Mises, Human Action (4th ed.), p. 832.

The General Assembly ... Determines that zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination. —UN GA Resolution 3379 (XXX).

There are three distinguished in fierceness: Israel among the nations, the dog among animals, and the cock among birds. —Rabbi Simeon, Tractate Bezah 25b, Babylonian Talmud (Quincentenary ed.), Soncino Pr.

Where is it possible to find a group of Jews who are committed to Israel, and whose children are likely to honor that commitment? The answer is, in a synagogue on the Sabbath. —Elliott Abrams, "Can Jews Survive?"

It is a fact that the Jewish religion is above all Jewish nationalism ... One must be a Jew first and a human being second. —Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem, as quoted in The Decadence of Judaism in Our Time by Moshe Menuhin.

Why, then, does truth generate hatred ... unless it be that truth is loved in such a way that those who love something else besides her wish that to be the truth which they do love. ... Therefore, they hate the truth for the sake of whatever it is that they love in place of the truth. —Augustine of Hippo, Confessions (Bk. X, Ch. XXIII, 34)

Friday, May 04, 2007

Israelis No. 1 in Supporting Torture

This is from the 'it's news to me' file: According to a scientific poll conducted for the BBC last year in 25 countries, citizens of the Jewish state had the highest level of agreement with the statement: "Terrorists pose such an extreme threat that governments should now be allowed to use some degree of torture if it may gain information that saves innocent lives."

The largest percentage endorsing torture was found in Israel. Forty-three percent say some degree of torture should be allowed, though slightly more (48%) think the practice should be prohibited. Israeli responses vary significantly by religion. A majority of Jewish respondents (53%) favor allowing governments to use torture to obtain information while 39 percent want clear rules against it. In contrast, Muslims in Israel (who represented 16 percent of total responses in that country) are overwhelmingly (87%) against any use of torture.

This is, no doubt, good news to the thugs in the Shin Bet--the Israeli domestic secret police--who routinely torture Arabs with the complicity of Israeli courts, prosecutors, and the public, not to mention the 'international community.'

According to the December, 2006, report of the United Against Torture Coalition to Combat Torture in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories: "Under Israeli criminal law, there is no specific offence of torture." The Supreme Court of Israel functionally legalized torture in its 1999 ruling in The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel vs. The Government of Israel et al. Only India and Russia did worse in terms of opposition to torture with only 48% of Israelis agreeing that "Clear rules against torture should be maintained because any use of torture is immoral and will weaken international human rights standards against torture."

Israel is, indeed, a "light unto the nations"--a flashing red light--or as Norman Finkelstein and others put it, a "blight unto the nations."

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Labels: Israel, Judaism, Norman G. Finkelstein, torture