Ruth King

All Americans are saddened and dumbfounded by the killing spree that snuffed out the lives of so many students and faculty on the halcyon campus of Virginia Tech near the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. We recall similar senseless murderous rampages at Columbine, Oklahoma City, at a rural Amish school.

Terrible as these events are, they could be even more horrifying. Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose the murderers had imbibed their all-consuming hatred from their parents, their religious leaders, their elected officials, their news media? What if their elementary school teachers had taught them Americans were vermin, bacteria, pigs and dogs? What if television stations broadcast documentaries in which six year olds lisped that they wanted to grow up to be like Timothy McVeigh?

Suppose parents took money to send out their children on these murderous rampages? Suppose the mother of one of these murderers declared her only wish was that she had ten more children to give to “the cause?” What if their hometowns named streets after them and they were celebrated as heroes and martyrs? What if dozens of newborns were named after them? What if Stephen Spielberg and Tony Kushner made a movie about these wanton killers and drew moral equivalency between them and their victims? What if these movies were nominated for Oscars?

All this is disgusting and impossible you say. Well folks, it’s what happens under the Palestinian Authority. Precisely such hatred is taught and such mass murder is celebrated by the entire society while international media draw moral equivalence between victim and assassin. Americans are horrified when they see the chilling suicide-video Cho Seung-Hui sent to NBC—actually taking time between his shooting sprees to go to the post office to mail it. But what about the equally chilling videos made by the Arab suicide bombers (which apparently inspired Cho to make his own version) just before their “missions?” These are broadcast to cheering local Arab audiences after a bombing in a café or pizzeria or bus stop or market where Israeli civilians are maimed and murdered. As Steven Zak points out in FrontPage, the monster at Virginia Tech is no more monstrous than the monster who left a bomb packed with bolts, screws and nails in a bag on a table in the crowded cafeteria at the student center of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, leaving nine dead and 85 maimed.

Here in America we feel horror and grief for the victims and rage at the murderers. We do not argue that they have legitimate grievances which must be addressed. Yet when it comes to the Arab monsters our media and politicians are full of “understanding.” The New York Times offers sympathetic portraits of the butchers and their enablers; endlessly describes the “root causes” of their frustration; their “humiliation” when security checks are implemented etc. etc. The suicide bombers and the Israelis who seek to protect the innocent are portrayed as equally culpable. Our pundits, academics and politicians call the handlers and supporters of those who carry out the murders “moderates,” “partners for peace.” Our administration and Congress fund them, arm them and continue to gratify them by demanding concessions on their behalf.

Such is the upside down world of our own State Department, a sad, sad commentary on the double moral standard consistently employed against Israel.

We would not countenance leaders who looked the other way or made excuses for the vicious murderers who preyed upon our children. Why do we expect the leaders of Israel to do so?

(Herbert Zweibon is in Israel.)