
 |
|
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
August 21, 2009
/ 1 Elul 5769
A dread disease, no known cure
By
Wesley Pruden
| 
|
|
|
| |
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
This is no way to treat kinfolks, but cousins don't always count. Napoleon described England as a nation of shopkeepers, and shopkeepers are always on the scout for opportunities to pinch a penny. Besides, "loyalty," like "morality," does not apply to nations.
Old Blighty is awash in high government officials blaming someone else for the incredible decision to send the Lockerbie bomber back to a hero's welcome in Libya. They're afraid the Americans will take out their considerable anger on chips and fish-eating surrender monkeys. There are already the usual threats of a consumer boycott, particularly of goods from Scotland, whose government is officially responsible for sending Abdel Baset al-Megrahi home to die. There'll be no more two-ply cashmere sweater sets for Christmas.
Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice minister who freed al-Megrahi, insists the decision was his and only his. But nobody believes him. Nearly everyone thinks Gordon Brown, the prime minister, is the true author of the scheme to trade al-Megrahi for the restoration of trade between Britain and Libya. Al-Megrahi was, after all, convicted only of aiding in the destruction of the Pan Am Boeing 747 in which 287 men, women and children including 189 Americans died just before Christmas in 1988. It's not like he killed Lord Mountbatten, Lady Bountiful or the twelfth Earl of Sandwich.
Mr. MacAskill, who feels circumstances beyond his control beginning to close in on him, says he asked the British government for its "views" before releasing the terrorist to Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan tyrant who starred in the nightmares of an earlier generation of Western diplomats.
"They declined to do so. They simply informed me that they saw no legal barrier to transfer and that they gave no assurances to the U.S. government at the time. They declined to offer a full explanation. I therefore do not know what the exact nature of those discussions was, nor what may have been agreed between governments."
Cabinet officers and diplomats, alas, always play the shell game when they have to explain their wretched decisions. Mr. MacAskill is no doubt correct that he was never told of "the exact nature" of his government's deal with Col. Gadhafi. No one showed him the cable traffic, no one showed him the memoranda spelling out what the release of the terrorist would be worth to Britain, no one showed him a written contract with the requisite references to the parties of the first and second part. That does not mean, of course, that he didn't know what was going on. The piano player in the bordello may not know "the exact nature" of what's going on upstairs, but he usually has a pretty good idea that nobody is reading from the Gideon Bible on the bedside table.
The British prime minister is playing the shell game, too, trying to divert attention from the real issue the release of an unrepentant terrorist with lugubrious attention to an embarrassing irrelevancy, the hero's homecoming the Libyans gave the terrorist. The prime minister plays victim, too: "He found the scenes at Tripoli airport thoroughly distasteful," and he has expressed his "dismay" to the colonel and his government.
Only a rube complains when he falls for a trick by an Arab sheik, and Gordon Brown's pathetic excuse is a reminder of what the West has become. Even before the terrorist landed in Tripoli to the hosannas of the mob, the colonel's sons were boasting of the deal their daddy made; Daddy himself said the trade would be "positively reflected in all areas of co-operation between the two countries."
The White House professes to be shocked shocked! that the British would abuse Anglo-Saxon justice so easily, even risking damage to "the special relationship." But these are phony sentiments, too. President Obama makes the apology to those who wish America harm, performed with the full grovel, the grace note of his administration. He went almost to Mecca to bow to the Saudi throne. Why shouldn't the Scots and the British follow the Obama example, to go squishy soft in dealing with terrorists?
Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and this is their thanks to the president for spreading the Obamamania that's making the world such a wet, warm and wonderful place.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
Wesley Pruden Archives
© 2007 Wesley Pruden
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|