Reversals

It is difficult to capture the absurdity of the attacks on Israel in the name of human rights, humanitarian concerns, legality or any of the myriad causes invoked to undermine support for its continued existence. The Arab citizens of Israel must be among the freest citizens of the Middle East, actually enjoying rights protected under the rule of law. Steve Huntley’s Chicago Sun-Times column briefly explores the double standards routinely applied to Israel in the West, most recently by the largest British academic trade union that has voted to boycott universities in Israel.
In video commentary accessible here, Benjamin Netanyahu comments on the British academic boycott of Israel. Netanyahu revisits British efforts to extirpate the Nazi regime during the Second World War. He contrasts the bombing of Dresden with Israel’s targeted response to the rocket attacks that Israel suffers daily. Netanyahu does not expressly observe that Britain’s academic union and its like-minded equivalents throughout Europe now side with the forces that seek to complete Hitler’s most notable project.
Thinking through a hypothetical reversal of circumstances that makes a similar point, Daily Telegraph columnist Charles Moore asks “What if Israel had abducted BBC man?” It’s a difficult hypothetical to conjure, which is part of Moore’s point. As BBC correspondent Alan Johnston enters the fourth month of his captivity in the hands of the barbarians who otherwise find the favor of the BBC, it is one that the BBC should be compelled to address every day until Johnston’s fate is determined.
A video statement by Johnston was released yesterday (transcript here). It sounds entirely familiar and unremarkable. One need not be concerned that Stockholm syndrome (or its Norwegian variant) is at work. As James Taranto acutely observes: “What’s grimly humorous about this is that the BBC is so anti-Israeli, anti-American and even anti-British that unlike in most hostage situations, there is ample reason to doubt Johnston’s insincerity.”
JOHN adds: Here is the video of Johnston.

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