Moral equivocation between the Israelis that are being attacked and the Palestinians who are doing the attacking is disgusting and betrays the unseemly anti-Semitic underbelly of much Leftist ideology. It is also politically dangerous. When you believe that both sides are equally responsible for a “cycle of violence,” then it logically follows that you will make equal demands on both sides – which can be disastrous when the truth of the matter is that one side is doing the attacking and the other side is doing the defending. An article in this morning’s Boston Globe provides a dramatic illustration of this dynamic:
The United States expects that the leaders of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim countries will take political risks in order to quash global terrorism. Surely Sharon should expect that Israel will be asked to take difficult steps in order to address threats to international stability and calm regional temperatures.
Yes, it’s true. The US expects Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim countries to take the domestically unpopular move of ceasing to support terrorism. The Boston Globe thinks that this is the same as asking Sharon to take the domestically unpopular move of ceasing to defend against terrorism. So while the US is trying to get the Muslim world to clamp down on terrorism, the Boston Globe wants them to weaken Sharon in order to give the impression that terrorism is working. But this is the kind of thinking that results from equivocating between the victims and perpetrators of terrorism.
