Ayoon Wa Azan (A List With Four War Criminals)

It is very rare for me to agree with all readers on a given topic. I admit that I cannot remember the last time we ever agreed. But I was pleased to find that all readers were in agreement over refusing the insults against the Prophet of Islam, in a film that is as vile as its makers. The most outrageous thing I read in defense of the film’s makers was the claim by the supporters of Israel that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of opinion and speech, protects their right to say what they want about the Prophet and his message. The U.S. constitutions and its amendments protect the right of Americans to speak about one another. But, this is the constitution of the U.S. not the world. I do not understand how this constitution can protect the right of any American to cause sectarian strife and the deaths of many people around the world, after deliberately insulting the Prophet of Islam in a film made specifically to provoke conservative and Muslim believers. The freedom of speech in the American and European style prohibits Holocaust denial, and punishes those who deny the Holocaust with heavy fines and prison sentences. Yet it seems to allow insults against a monotheistic religion, its prophet and those who profess it. This is chutzpah, as embodied by an article carried by the Christian Science Monitor (CSM). CSM is usually moderate, and the piece’s title was “America should not apologize for values that clash with hostile Islam”. But who was hostile to whom? What is better than the above was a cartoon I saw in the Herald Tribune, showing angry Muslim protesters on one side, and Americans raising the First Amendment of the Constitution on the other side, with a man between them saying: “Can't we just all agree that the video is really bad?” Personally, I would accept the First Amendment when it includes the right to deny the Nazi Holocaust, although I do not deny it personally, and I have always maintained that six million Jews had indeed perished in the Holocaust. Moving on to another issue, this time with an Israeli angle, I noted in this column the list of the world's 100 most influential women, and that among the top twenty women were four Jewish ones. After this, readers asked me to see the whole list, or the world’s 100 most influential men. There is a list like that, and I have already sent it to those who requested it. But I want to add to all the readers that I found a list of the world’s ten most influential Jews, led by Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. There was a brief bio about Zuckerberg, but it overlooked his company’s IPO, and how prices quickly tumbled and small shareholders grumbling. More importantly, the list included Benjamin Netanyahu in second place, Ehud Barack in fourth place, Beni Gantz, the Israeli army chief of staff, in fifth place, and Meir Dagan, former head of the Mossad in sixth place. Other names included Dennis Ross, the Middle East peace broker, and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve (the U.S. equivalent of the central bank). This list of ten people included four terrorists, war criminals and murderers. But I think they indeed represent Israel as it is best embodied, while insisting that a majority of Jews around the world are liberal moderates, including many extremely active peace advocates. The government of Israel only represents the extremists. I started with one act of chutzpah by the supporters of Israel, and I shall conclude with another. The organizers of the London Olympics had refused to commemorate the “massacre” of the Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Olympics – which I attended and wrote about several times. The hostages were not killed by Palestinian militants, who wanted them alive to swap them with their prisoners. Instead, they were killed in a failed ambush by the German police, who tried to rescue them. The Likudniks of America have yet to stop their campaign, after using the Munich attack to cover up Israel’s daily crimes. To be sure, there is a new Israeli crime every day, as well as a story about Munich and other topics to divert attention away from these crimes. 11 Israeli athletes were killed 40 years ago. But 1500 Palestinian minors, i.e. less than 15 years of age, (and thousands of adults) have been killed since the start of the Second Intifada on 29/9/2000. The killing is still ongoing, and yet Israeli terrorists and the Likudniks of America want to commemorate 11 men who all served in the terrorist occupation army, and overlook the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian children, in an ongoing Israeli massacre. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.