Author: John Perazzo
Publication: FrontPageMagazine.com
Date: August 3, 2006
URL: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=23630
During these tense times in the Middle East,
at least Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can have a good laugh over
the pathetic July 26 letter addressed to him by the Executive Director of
Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division, Sarah Leah Whitson.
"Dear President Ahmadinejad," the letter solemnly begins, "We
[at HRW] are aware that you have recently expressed great concern about the
current fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, citing in particular the large
numbers of Lebanese civilian victims of this conflict."
Your eyes do not deceive you. HRW believes,
at least publicly, that it is communicating with an individual (Ahmadinejad)
who actually gives a damn - for reasons other than political expediency -
about the oft-lamented "civilian victims" whose sufferings presumably
cause him to weep and pray for peace. Ms. Whitson seems unaware that the addressee
of her letter has repeatedly, unabashedly characterized Israel as a loathsome
"tumor" whose civilians and non-civilians alike "must be wiped
off the map" of the planet earth.
To demonstrate her organization's unwavering
solidarity with Ahmadinejad's commendable "concern" about the well-being
of innocent noncombatants in Lebanon, Whitson takes pains to assure him of
the following: "Human Rights Watch is also [emphasis added] extremely
concerned about the price civilians are paying - on both sides of the border.
We have questioned the lawfulness of Israel's attacks under international
humanitarian law in light of the extremely high proportion of civilians among
those killed and wounded and the devastation these attacks have caused to
infrastructure essential to the civilian population. We have stressed to Israel
the imperative of providing safe passage to civilians seeking to flee the
fighting and for relief convoys into and out of areas affected by the fighting.
To that end, we are monitoring and reporting on Israeli abuses."
Then, in a paragraph of the politest decorum, Whitson writes: "[W]e urge
you to remind Hezbollah that its actions as a group [that is] engaged in armed
conflict subject it to the requirements of international humanitarian law.
As such, it is bound to conduct hostilities in compliance with customary international
humanitarian law and common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949."
What will come next? Will HRW implore Osama bin Laden to "remind"
his al Qaeda foot soldiers to never lose sight of their cherished principles
of tolerance, religious freedom, and Jeffersonian democracy? Whitson demonstrates
beyond dispute that she possesses not a scintilla of insight into the nature
of Islamofascism as embodied in the likes of Hezbollah and Ahmadinejad - both
of whom, in HRW's calculus, would be pleased to find a viable way to live
in peaceful coexistence with Israel.
"Iran should seek assurances from Hezbollah,"
Whitson continues, "that the organization is not locating weapons, launching
attacks, and stationing combatants in civilian structures or in or close to
civilian populated areas." But the use of human shields is precisely
Hezbollah's modus operandi, as it has been throughout the many years during
which Iran has supported that organization to the tune of $100 million annually.
What could be more nonsensical than to prevail upon the supposedly benign
intervention of the very man (Ahmadinejad) who now arms Hezbollah, and who
recently declared, with eager anticipation, that "the annihilation of
the Zionist regime" is close at hand.
"An intervention with Hezbollah," Whitson continues, "provides
you [President Ahmadinejad] an opportunity to demonstrate that Iran is serious
about protecting civilians in this war by addressing potential violations
of international humanitarian law by your country's ally [Hezbollah]."
The implication is that heretofore Iran has been an uninvolved observer watching
from the sidelines, anxiously wringing its hands in hopes that its belligerent
Hezbollah comrades might soon lay down their arms and break bread with Jews.
From reading Whitson's words, one would never suspect that Iran was not only
responsible for Hezbollah's creation in 1982, but that it is entirely responsible
for having transformed the latter into a formidable military force today.
Whitson writes as if she has painstakingly uncovered (and civic-mindedly revealed
to Ahmadinejad) a previously elusive plan for achieving the good relations
with Israel that the Iranian president presumably seeks above all else. There
is no hint that she takes seriously his recent proclamation that Muslim armies
would "soon wipe off this disgraceful blot [Israel] from the face of
the Islamic world."
Ms. Whitson ends her letter as she began it
- pathetically. "Finally," she writes, "we urge you to make
clear that further Iranian support for Hezbollah, including any prospective
supply of military assistance, will be contingent on its compliance with these
demands." This statement ignores the fact that no Iranian support for
Hezbollah is justified according to the stipulations of UN Resolution 1559
(passed in 2004), which called for "the disbanding and disarmament of
all … militias" in Lebanon.
HRW's letter to Ahmadinejad illustrates vividly the greatest weakness of the
modern Left - its steadfast refusal to recognize the existence of maniacal,
genocidal evil (other than in the hearts of Western figures like President
Bush or Donald Rumsfeld), and to deal with it forcefully and with moral certitude.
Rather, the Left considers the mere suggestion that such a brand of evil even
exists - particularly in cultures outside the West - to be prima facie evidence
of Western racism, ethnocentrism, and "blaming the victim." Thus
we witness the sorry spectacle of a "human rights" organization
like HRW comforting itself, as detailed above, with polite, decorous, gentlemanly
communiqués to devils who have unambiguously announced their desire
to exterminate the "infidels" of Israel and America. Moreover, we
see HRW and its ideological kin ever-so-gently and respectfully urging the
political intervention of a man who has publicly lauded the "very wise
statement" of the "dear Imam" (Ayatollah Khomeini) which "ordered
that the occupying regime in Jerusalem be wiped off the face of the earth."
