Political Quotes

“I rise to dispel a dangerous notion, one I have seen too frequently in newspapers, heard on TV and among people, commentators and others in the wake of the violence in Israel. The dangerous notion is that there is a moral equivalence between the actions and reactions of Israel and the Palestinian State to the violence and response in the Middle East--or the Palestinian people more so than the State. It must be said there is no moral equivalence between the actions and reactions of Israel and Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to the violence that has occurred there. Two instances make that very clear. We all witnessed terrible tragedies occurring in that tortured region of the world. We are now all familiar with both the kidnapping and cold- blooded murder of three Israeli boys and, in what seems to be payback, the killing of a young Palestinian teenager. Both were abhorrent--both were abhorrent--and the losses of the families on both sides cannot be understated, but I think what we ought to focus on--we all know each side has its fanatics. Each side experiences tragedy of the highest order. What I am saying does not apply to all the people on either side, particularly the Palestinian side, but the reaction is what counts. What was the reaction among too many Palestinians to the murder of these three boys? They were almost exultant. They were treated as heroes.…”