Rachel Corrie

Three days ago, an Israeli court ruled that the death of American Rachel Corrie was accidental; that the soldier who hit her with his bulldozer was not liable.  Rachel's parents called this "A bad day for human rights."  A UN spokesman called it a "defeat for justice".

Less than a hundred miles away, in Damascus, the dictator of Syria and his army have killed nearly 25,000 of his own people, plus another 265 foreign civilians (including 207 Palestinians).  There will be no court date for any of the soldiers who perpetrated these acts of murder.  There will be no investigations.  The dictator will probably eventually be deposed and killed, but everything else will get swept under the rug, much like it did when the dictator's father murdered 10,000-40,000 of his own people in 1982.

We all know justice isn't perfect.  Cold blooded killers sometimes go free.  Innocent people are sometimes wrongly convicted.  But in Israel there was a process of justice.  In Syria there is none. In Lebanon there is none. In Gaza there is none.  The verdict was disappointing to Rachel's parents. Of course.  But global condemnation for the process is stupid and fake.  Only the willfully blind refuse to see the double standard.  Thank God there is one country in the Middle East with independent institutions that can dispense a process ruled by laws.  But have some perspective please.  I can't recall the UN telling the world that it was a defeat for justice when the glove didn't fit. And in that case twice as many innocent people were killed.