From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Those
Peace-Loving Saudis
"Angering Israelis and disappointing other diplomats here, a senior Saudi
official lashed out at Israel on Wednesday in a speech to the [United Nations]
Security Council that was widely but wrongly expected to be the first public
articulation of a new peace initiative promoted by Saudi Arabia," the Los
Angeles Times reports.
Ambassador Fawzi Shubukshi fulminated: "No one can deny that what the Palestinian people are undergoing in the occupied territories is one of the worst forms of injustice inflicted by man, one of the worst examples of pressure and persecution and racism and systematic oppression in the history of mankind."
He added: "The objective of Israel was and remains the expulsion of the Arab people from Palestine." Israel has some one million Arab citizens, out of a total population of six million. Shubukshi also said Arab terrorism against Jews is justified: "Palestinian violence is only a result of Israeli terrorism."
Over at the New York Times, which has been crusading for the Saudis' purported peace plan ever since columnist Tom Friedman broke news of it, Shubukshi's comments apparently were unfit to print. There's no mention of them in today's Times. There is, however, an editorial titled "Support for the Saudi Proposal."
The Washington Times reports that Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is scoffing at the supposed Saudi settlement, on the grounds that, as the Times puts it, "Israel viewed it as a starting point for negotiations, while the Saudi proposal could only be an all-or-nothing deal." In other words, the Arabs are saying: You give us land today, and maybe we'll give you peace tomorrow.
How
Arabs Treat Palestinians
The Associated Press reports from Baghdad on Palestinian refugees living in
Iraq:
Hoping to make more money, many Palestinian youths want to leave for work abroad. But most are stuck.
Those Palestinians who have only travel documents, not passports, issued by Iraq or other Arab countries say Iraq's neighbors refuse to take them in or even let them pass through. Commercial flights to and from Iraq are blocked by the UN sanction.
"I keep on thinking of my future: How will I get work here? And if I do, how can I afford to get married? Without traveling it's impossible, impossible to start a life," said Mahmoud Mahmoud, a 19-year-old Palestinian born in Iraq.
"We're like outcasts to other Arab countries. They think we are terrorists."
Suicide
Sister
Another Arab woman has blown herself up in the West Bank, but Dareen Abu Aisheh
failed to kill any Jews. The Associated Press reports that Abu Aisheh went to
Jamal Mansour, a local Hamas leader, and asked why the terror group didn't use
women as well as man as suicide bombers.
"When we run out of men we shall start using women," Abu Aisheh's sister, Shireen, quotes Mansour as saying. So Dareen went to Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization to get the bomb she used. Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
Blaming
Clinton--at Last
The Bush White House, which for more than a year has magnanimously avoided the
subject of Bill Clinton's legacy, is finally casting some blame. Press secretary
Ari Fleischer says the previous administration tried to push too hard for a Middle East peace agreement.
"You can make the case that in an attempt to shoot the moon and get nothing,
more violence resulted," Fleischer said. "The parties didn't want to agree to
what the United States was pushing for. It is important to be careful in the
region, to proceed at a pace that is achievable and doable, and not to raise
people's expectations falsely too high."
Another
Israeli Plot
"Israel's agenda is to secularise the Islamic world, said Dubai's Police
Chief," the Gulf News reports. "Unlike Arab countries, Israel excels at
the art of devising strategies and playing them out," Maj. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan
Tamim tells a group of "intellectuals and foreign dignities at a press
conference." We doubt he's right, but one can always hope.
Car
Bomb in Jordan
A car bomb in the Jordanian capital of Amman has killed two passersby, an Egyptian
and an Iraqi, the BBC reports. "The car belonged to Yasmin Burjak, the
wife of Lt Col Ali Burjak of the Jordanian Government's Anti-Terrorism Unit."
A "senior security official" tells the network: "This appears
to be a message to the Jordanian security apparatus at this crucial time."
Hindus
Take Revenge
After a Muslim mob killed nearly 60 Hindus on a train in India, "Hindu
mobs went on the rampage" in the state of Gujarat, the BBC reports. "In
the state's largest city, Ahmedabad, 22 Muslims were burnt alive," and
some 40 people are thought to be dead statewide.
The San Jose Mercury News carries an article on the original attack, with the headline: "Religious Tensions Kill 57 in India." No, "religious tension" isn't a new medical condition; it's a euphemism for "Muslim mob."
The
Iraqi Opposition Confab
"More than 200 former Iraqi officers will meet in Washington next month
under the auspices of the U.S. government to plan the overthrow of President
Saddam Hussein," Reuters reports. The conference will be led by the Iraqi
National Congress, and among those expected to attend is Brig. Gen. Najib al-Salihi,
a former chief of staff in the elite Republican Guard.
But United Press International says the administration "risks sliding into a widening chasm dividing Iraqi opposition groups," noting that "the State Department held meetings Tuesday with another opposition group, the Iraqi National Liberals, who requested U.S. support for a separate conference of its own former Iraqi soldiers." The Liberals won't be attending the Congress's conference.
Pakistanis
Foil Terror Escape Plan
"Gunmen ambushed a police bus Thursday in an unsuccessful bid to free prisoners
from three banned Muslim groups, one of which is suspected of involvement in
the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl," the Associated
Press reports. A policeman and a prisoner died, but no one escaped. Top suspect
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh had been transferred to a different prison after police
received bomb threats.
The
David Duke Connection
U.S. officials "have evidence that neo-Nazis, white supremacists and Black
Muslim factions have reached out to foreign terrorists whose similar hatred
for Israel and the U.S. government might make them natural allies":
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, some American white supremacists have written pieces aimed at Middle Eastern or Muslim audiences that blame the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on U.S. politicians and Israel.
"The real reason we have suffered the terrorism of the WTC attack is shockingly simple," former Klu [sic] Klux Klan leader David Duke wrote in one such piece. "Too many American politicians have treasonously betrayed the American people by blindly supporting the leading terrorist nation on earth: Israel."
Duke's articles on his Web site are now translated into Arabic and have appeared in Mideast and Muslim publications since Sept. 11.
Next time you encounter some left-wing "antiwar" wacko, make sure you remind him he's on the same side as David Duke.
Kim's
on Board
Here's another piece of evidence against the nervous Nellies who fretted that
President Bush was alienating America's allies with his "axis of evil"
speech. South Korea's President Kim Dae Jung tells the Los Angeles Times that
although he was, in the Times' words, "taken aback" by the "axis"
phrase, "there are no substantial differences of opinion between him and
Bush on the subject of North Korea." Says Kim: "When I first heard this
quote, I fully understood what he meant. But with regard to that particular
wording, it was unexpected."
Trading
With the Enemy
"US security products are openly on display at a trade fair in Iran, despite
sanctions banning virtually all trade and transfer of technology to the Islamic
republic," the Financial Times reports. "Among the US products on
display on Wednesday were closed-circuit televisions produced by Pelco,
face-recognition systems by Visionics,
access control by Apollo
Security, satellite pictures by Space
Imaging, printers by Hewlett-Packard
and communications equipment by Motorola."
Run
Out of Iran
Amor ben Mohamed Sliti, a suspect in the Sept. 9 assassination of Northern Alliance
leader Ahmed shah Massoud, is in the Netherlands after being extradited by Iraq.
"Mr Sliti is believed to have escaped American forces in Afghanistan by
fleeing over the border into Iran with with 150 al-Qaeda fighters. Iran agreed
to extradite the 42-year-old Tunisian, who holds Belgian citizenship and who
European investigators say played a crucial role in terrorist operations leading
up to September 11," the Times of London reports.
Corrections
In yesterday's
item on the "Doomsday Clock," we falsely described the Bulletin
for the Atomic Scientists as being published by scientists. In fact, a look
at the Board
of Directors shows that this is not a scientific organization at all. Its
chairman is George Lopez a professor of government at Nortre Dame's Joan A.
Kroc Center for International Peace Studies, and a vice chairman is Dorinda
Dallmeyer, a law professor at Georgia's Dean Rusk Center.
There are a few scientists on the board, including astronomer Don Lamb, a vice chairman, and, at the very bottom of the list, Cindy Williams, "Principal Research Scientist with the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." Hey wait, didn't she use to be Shirley on "Laverne & Shirley"?
Contrary to yesterday's item on CNN and USA Today's poll of nine Muslim countries, the USA today story did explain that government censors refused to allow the pollsters to ask certain questions in some of the nine countries surveyed.
Correction
of the Day
From the Washington Post:
In yesterday's aptly headlined editorial "Mistakes Were Made," an incorrect title was given on first reference for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The editorial referred to Rummy as secretary of state.
In
Castro's Commie Paradise
"A busload of Cuban citizens--using a Mercedes bus--crashed through a gate
at the Mexican embassy just before midnight Wednesday with the apparent intention
of seeking asylum," CNN reports. "Police reacted aggressively to the
bus break-in, chasing, beating and detaining people in the street. Two Reuters
journalists were among those beaten with batons."
There's the difference between Cuba and America: There, people try to smuggle themselves into Mexico.
Speaking
of Cuba . . .
The New York Times' William Safire (link requires registration) notes that Janet
Reno faces an uphill battle in the Florida governor's race: "If she gets
the chance to challenge the president's brother, she will be pressed to explain
why the full resources of Justice were concentrated on breaking into the Florida
home of Elián González when--unknown to the F.B.I.--terrorists
training for 9/11 were attending a flight school 10 miles away. Her appeasement
of Castro, with Clinton's approval, cost Al Gore 30,000 Cuban-American Florida
votes and the national election."
CNN's "Inside Politics" yesterday featured a segment on Reno, in which Brian Crowley of the Palm Beach Post made this curious comment:
What Republicans fear most about Janet Reno, what they tell me, is that they fear her becoming a cult figure. And I think what you're trying to see them build along here is that she's not just a Democrat, that she's this independent politician. She's Janet Reno, above and beyond the party recognition. And Republicans--you know, senior advisers to Jeb Bush told me just last week that they think they can defeat her nine times out of 10. But if she takes off as a cult figure in the final weeks of the election, she could be unstoppable.
Of course, given Reno's record, if she becomes a "cult figure," her followers may end up getting burned.
Dude,
You're Not Gettin' a Dell
"Dell Computers is under fire from gun aficionados after it refused to
sell a laptop to a handgun maker," Wired magazine reports. The computer
company canceled Jack Weigand's order because of the name of his company, Weigand
Combat Handguns:
It turns out that a manager in Dell's export compliance department flagged the shipment as a purchase that was prohibited under U.S. law. Weigand was told that his order had been canceled because, in these post-Sept. 11 days, the name of his company sounded a bit too terroristic for comfort's sake.
Weigand actually makes high-quality custom revolvers. Dell apologized for its error and offered Weigand a free computer, which he turned down. He has now been immortalized on the urban myth-busting site Snopes.com with a page attesting that his story is true.
Dinosaur
Vomit
In his fourth speech of an Australian tour yesterday, "former US president
Bill Clinton . . . vowed to dedicate the rest of his life to helping
redistribute the world's wealth," the Australian Associated Press reports.
The Aussie wire service doesn't say how much Clinton was paid for the speech.
You
Wash My Hands, I'll Wash Yours
From yesterday's USA Today report on Rosie O'Donnell's much-hyped interview
with ABC's Diane Sawyer:
Before the show, O'Donnell told USA Today she chose to talk to Sawyer because she wanted an investigative piece on Florida's ban on gay adoption. She told Sawyer if that was done, "I would like to talk about my life and how (the case) pertains to me."
Isn't it unethical for a network to offer news coverage on a celebrity's pet issue in exchange for an interview?
Krugman
Watch
Remember yesterday's
item on Enron's phony trading room? An alert InstaPundit reader noted the
following description of what appears to be the same room, which appeared in
a 1999 article:
The company's pride and joy is a room filled with hundreds of casually dressed men and women staring at computer screens and barking into telephones, where cubic feet and megawatts are traded and packaged as if they were financial derivatives. (Instead of CNBC, though, the television screens on the floor show the Weather Channel.)
This, of course, was from a Fortune puff piece by Paul Krugman, written while he was still an Enron adviser. Even better, he continues: "The whole scene looks as if it had been constructed to illustrate the end of the corporation as we knew it." Was he, too, fooled by the scam? Or might he have been in on it?
Begging
for Mercy Because He's an Orphan
Harvey Taylor, convicted of "sex offenses involving a minor child," was wanted
in Florida for probation violations. Cops found out he was living in Maine under
an alias, and a local detective, Glenn Ross, went to pick him up. The Bangor
Daily News reports:
Taylor said he was approached by a man he later learned was a detective. "I thought he was a nut," Taylor said. "When he opened his coat a little bit I took for granted he was trying to show me, 'Hey, I got a gun.' I took off running and he chased me until I got to the side of the woods."
Ross said the detective opened his coat to show his badge, but Taylor refused to identify himself and jumped into a car driven by another person and left. He said [Detective Timothy] Jameson called for assistance and pursued the vehicle in his cruiser, turning on his siren and blue lights to stop the vehicle. He said Taylor jumped out of the car and ran into the woods. Jameson followed Taylor's tracks a few hundred yards into the woods, but could not find Taylor.
When the trail went cold, Taylor got lost and spent three nights in the snow-covered woods before finally being caught. Now he's threatening to sue Ross, alleging it's the detective's fault he suffered frostbite and lost several toes. "If he had done his job properly I wouldn't be in the condition that I'm in right now," the frigid fugitive fumes. "I would have been in jail that very same day."
(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to S.E. Brenner, Michael Segal, Damian Bennett, Raghu Desikan, Yehuda Hilewitz, Marc Dworkin, C.E. Dobkin, Ted Villa, Robert LeChevalier, Gopi Maliwal, Robert Clucas, Paul Music, Napoleon Cole, Kenneth Mitchell, H. Koenig, Eric Umansky, Julie Carlson, Keith Phillips, Zachary Emig, Manny Klausner, Randy Gibson, Joe Fischetti, Rick Lee, Dante Giancola, Phil Boas, Jay Brinker and Joan Sibbald. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Robert Pollock: No more "peace processes" (link requires registration).
- Collin Levey: Why should taxpayers shell out a million bucks for a crook's new heart?
- Claudia Rosett: Bush was right to include North Korea in the "axis of evil."
