Turkey’s foreign minister: “There is no excuse to attack a synagogue.”
The Global Terrorism Index was released this week. The report by the Institute for Economics and Peace said that nearly 18,000 people died in some 10,000 terrorist attacks in 2013, a 61 percent increase from the previous year. (http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/My-Word-A-personal-response-to-terrorism-382449)
How can heads of state and journalists continue to excuse any terrorist attacks which are aimed at civilian populations? What are the excuses for attacking men, women and children waiting for trains and buses, walking down the street, children going to school, kindergartens, restaurants…..?
In September 8 – 23, 1971, a full Diplomatic Conference attended by Delegates from 60 Member States and the United Nations was held in Montreal. The purpose of this meeting was to draft a protocol that would address the terrorist act of the hi-jacking of airplanes that was taking place around the world. As a result, the “Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts of Violence at Airports Serving International Civil Aviation, Supplementary to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation” was signed in Montreal on September 23, 1971 (adopted on 24 February 1988). One of the UN members of that committee and one of the signatures of that document was by a representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), one of the terrorist organizations taking credit for some of the hi-jacking that was the catalyst for the conference.
The building in which the conference took place was right across the street from McGill University. The bizarre irony of this event with the participation of the PLO didn’t seem to disturb the academic or the Jewish community. Only a handful of student Zionist’s were present and vocal with the message “Palestinians Yes, PLO No”.
Judging by the recent response to the ongoing terrorist attacks and countries taking votes on the recognition of a Palestinian “State”, it looks like we are still stuck in a decades’ old illusion. It’s time for an objective observer to shout out from the crowd, “the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes!”