generalspeaking

Enlightened Contrasts

It's instructive to learn just how enlightened Israel is with respect to those whom the country incarcerates as punishment for their destructive and terrorist activities against the State. Israel sees merit in a system it employs whereby Arab prisoners in Israeli jails are encouraged to educate themselves to a degree which might stimulate them to question their values and commitment to violence.

Not that the education itself is specifically geared toward that end, as in lecturing prisoners in an academic setting about how harmful their activities are. Instead the initiative appears to be geared toward instilling an appreciation for furthering individuals' general education levels with the end result hoping to produce more responsible and clear-thinking people who might just discover other values in life.

Currently, one hundred prisoners from the Rimon jail are enrolled as foreign students at Hebrew University, three of whom have now received Masters' Degrees. "Giving the prisoners an education is an important step, and the heads of the [terror] organizations in the jails encourage the inmates to join the studies at Hebrew University", said Jamal Rajoub, an imprisoned terrorist.

This is a matter of long-standing policy in Israel's Prison Authority, in an effort to accommodate the demands of prisoners for the more extended purpose of avoiding riots and strikes. If it were not for the avoidance of violence by permitting prisoners to achieve university education, it is questionable whether political and legal advocates would deem the advance to be a requirement.

But it is seen as a solution to avoiding unnecessary and unwanted violence within the prison system. And as such it is both enterprising, self-serving, and clearly a valuable exercise of tolerance on one end, and advantage on the other. Compare that enlightened functionality of tolerance and attainment with what occurs on the opposite side of the fence.

Where the Palestinian Authority encourages the violent activities by Palestinians against the State of Israel and its population, even while it protests to the world at large that it is prepared to live in peace as an independent state alongside the Jewish state. This conspicuous hypocrisy is termed an encouragement of the "struggle against Israel"; a sworn enemy for whom no quarter is given.

And in that vein PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a partner for peace with Israel, has authorized benefits for families of terrorists killed or injured in their line of 'duty'. Regular monthly stipends have been authorized for families of the "shahids" (martyrs), with funds directly deposited into those families' bank accounts alongside the regular salary deposits transferred to the accounts of PA government workers.

Contributions by the European Union for the purpose of helping the PA "pay the January salaries and pensions of 80,551 Palestinian public service providers and pensioners", also thus, pays for the support of terrorist activities. Moreover, Prime Minister Fayyad appealed for an increase in support by the European Union and was amply rewarded. These slippery connections appear to bypass the intelligence of Western supporters of the PA.

Clearly, funding from international sources for humanitarian purposes only are coming from somewhere. And if that funding isn't being derived from internationally-donated funds then funding is being diverted from other purposes to pay the families of "shaheeds" in honouring the dedication to terror of their lost loved ones.

Why is it that the PA feels they are morally obligated to support these families, other than that they have been inspired in their activities by the PA?

Health insurance for members of families with terrorists killed or injured in the "struggle against Israel" has been renewed by the PA Health Ministry, and the PA Ministry of Education is authorizing tuition exemptions for children of a "shahid" family wishing to attend school or university in the Palestinian Authority.

The agendas of these two adversarial entities is so unalike as to make it appear virtually impossible that a solution to the historical enmity between them can ever be achieved.

When one country goes out of its way to mollify and to assist those whom it holds prisoner for violent activities threatening their very existence as a country, and the other offers generous praise and reward to those whose activities threaten their neighbour.

Labels: Middle East, Terrorism, Traditions, Values

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, February 06, 2010