Wednesday, December 30, 2009

US Administration: Politics, not Lawfare

The Obama administration, just like the Bush administration before it, isn't interested in allowing a damages case against the Palestinian Authority for the murder of an American citizen, Esh Kodesh Gilmore, in 2000. Of course, the government shouldn't be the one to decide that sort of thing, you'd think, but the reality is that it does, even in the United States.

There's also the ironic twist, not mentioned in the news item, that Gilmore was murdered by Palestinians while guarding the East Jerusalem office of Bituach Leumi, the Israeli equivalent of Social Security - i.e, the place that pays large sums of money to Palestinians in East Jerusalem who aren't even Israeli citizens, as has been mentioned here in the past. Makes you wonder who the Palestinian murderer thought he was attacking.

Personally, I support the administration's position. Gilmore's murder was part of a political struggle, not a bank robbery, and the trial is intended to impinge upon a political process. The American government - a political entity through and through, by definition - wishes to keep the lawfare part out of the politics part. So long as they do so consistently, they're right. It would be pleasant for once to see our enemies squirming on the lawfare defendant's bench, but it wouldn't make the world a better place. Lawfare is a bad thing, no matter which side is doing it.

3 comments:

NormanF said...

The US has leverage here: it should make clear to the PA to call off its lawfare dogs against Israel or face the consequences in an American court. And facing the prospect of large damages might sober up the Palestinian leadership.

I agree lawfare is a bad thing but its also a two way street.

Avigdor said...

NormanF, the US does not seek leverage over the PA. It is building up the PA as leverage on Israel.

Empress Trudy said...

Since the al Aqsa war, more than 50 US citizens have been murdered by Palestinians. I have yet to hear anything from the US government on this. If you are a Jew, in Israel, and a US citizen, the US government does not care if you are murdered. It mustered more effort to free two journalists who intentionally walked into North Korea than it ever so much as pretended to exert over the savage murders of American citizens, many of them women and children.

These are simply the facts.