Thursday, November 04, 2004

ZMAN BIUR NEEDS GLASSES

The American-Israeli Modern-Orthodox religious-Zionist politically-conservative yeshiva-educated happily-married Ivy-League software engineer not from New York (PHEW!) can't see straight.

Zman Biur slams Human Rights Watch today, suggesting the Human Rights organization approves of suicide attacks on Israel - so long as they are carried out by adults, and not children.

Here is the irresponsible, and poorly-thought-out-quote from Biur: "Human Rights Watch doesn't seem terribly concerned with the continuing terror attacks against Israeli civilians - so long as they're committed by consenting adults!"

In short, this is slanderous and ridiculous. In his rush to paint HRW as Israel's enemy, Biur fails to complete elementary research, which is why he is unaware that Human Rights Watch has regulalry, and consistently condemned Palestinian attacks on civilians in strong, and clear language.

Some examples:

"Deliberately and systematically killing civilians violates the most fundamental principles of humanity. Political parties, community leaders and government officials should speak out unequivocally against these atrocities and support every effort to bring the perpetrators to justice." Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division, HRW - October 12, 2004

"We condemn this horrific act as a violation of the most basic principle of international humanitarian law, the absolute prohibition against targeting civilians." - Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch , December 14, 2001

"The people who carry out suicide bombings are not martyrs, they're war criminals, and so are the people who help to plan such attacks. The scale and systematic nature of these attacks sets them apart from other abuses committed in times of conflict. They clearly fall under the category of crimes against humanity." - Kenneth Roth, November 1, 2002

"Under international humanitarian law, the absolute prohibition against targeting civilians extends to acts of reprisal. One cannot attack civilians, no matter what the cause."
Hanny Megally, HRW, Executive Director Middle East and North Africa division - August 6, 2002

... and I could go on and on.

So, Biur, why the amateurish hack job on HRW? Don't you know how to operate Google?

4 comments:

Jason H. Elbaum said...

Please see my response.

DovBear said...

Well done!

I still think you were unfair to HRW, which is typical of the Israeli right. If anyone says anything that isn't hyper-critical of the Palestenians, the right calls foul.

I hope your readers take your advice and use the HRW archive to judge for themselves, and I hope we can match wits again.

MYG said...

You commented: "hooray! A blog more boring than my own!"

But, just barely.
Moshe

MYG said...

Just picked the most recent one...
Moshe