Customer Reviews

Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11: Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute

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Please take the review from Jill Malter with a ghrain of salt. If you review her reviews of other books it's important to note that they share a common, Pro Israeli point of view. Naturally, she has every right to hold this view. However, to defend the building of a "security wall" is beyond defensibility. If the goal was security, Israel would build the wall 1 mile within the, internationally accepted, 1967 border. That is a defensible action. The current wall is an act of imperialism at best and terror at worst. Read the Chomskey / Dershowitz debate for a more detailed discussion of this topic.

That issue aside. This is an extraordinary book that details some of the pressing issues confronting our current political situation in the US. I would also recommend Amy Goodman's book.

I'm very interested in human rights. And I support human rights for everyone. But I know that it is not always easy for those whose rights are violated to get a hearing. The powers that be may not be interesting in publicizing their complaints. What is to be done?

The answer is to find a way to speak out, and to get allies. And this book could be part of such an effort. Instead, it achieves the opposite effect. The wrong allies have been chosen. It is bad enough to choose tyrants as allies. It is catastrophic to choose liars.

It is a good idea to monitor our behavior. But that requires honesty and accuracy, not mere transmission of anti-American propaganda.

Since this book mentions American involvement in the Middle East, it would have been a good idea for it to find fault with our government's tolerance for and even support of opponents of human rights, including Arafat and his gang. However, this book chooses to ignore Arafat's transgressions and find fault with Arafat's Israeli victims for building a separation fence to defend the lives of Israeli citizens! And the book finds fault with the United States for supporting Israel's right to do this at the International Court of Justice.

A book about human rights that includes such a gross moral error simply can't be trusted. And those who wish to use such a book to air their grievances about transgressions of human rights thus lose an opportunity to be heard and taken seriously.