Monday, June 25, 2007

Alan Johnston, Gaza, and the Death of Sympathy

Alan Johnston, the BBC's Gaza-based reporter who was kidnapped back in March by a radical Islamist group, has reappeared in a video - wearing an explosive suicide vest and asking not to be rescued.

Once again, radical Islamists have taken the step which most undermines any residual sympathy they might have had among Western audiences. Alan Johnston was the only Western reporter actually living in Gaza and trying to present a balanced depiction of the desperate situation there. By kidnapping and threatening him, the radicals have convincingly shown that they have no respect for human life and no sense of how to go about redressing their grievances. Of course, those grievances are held against everyone but themselves. As I have often pointed out, events have shown, and most of the world overlooks, the Palestinians have no interest in looking inward and helping to solve the many problems that beset them - it's much easier to sit in misery and squalor, squandering each chance for peace and security while thundering that the situation is the responsibility of (choose one or more):

(1) Israel;
(2) The United States;
(3) Anyone else.

My heart goes out to Alan Johnston, a prisoner of bigoted morons without either conscience or any sense of how to go about achieving their end goals...whatever those are. My heart used to go out to the Palestinians, but they've long since forfeited any sympathy I had for their plight.

My father was always fond of saying that "God helps those who help themselves." It's not a wonder that He seems to have abandoned those in the sorry Middle East who most frequently invoke His name.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

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