A funny thing happened recently while I was giving my dog a haircut.\u00a0 I had planted myself next to him, trimming as much as possible before he could object.\u00a0 Suddenly I realized I was getting overly zealous on his left hind leg.<\/p>\n
Mind you, his hair wasn\u2019t extra-long there.\u00a0 It was simply that the left hind leg was the area I could most easily get at.<\/p>\n
Nutty, huh?\u00a0 Kind of like the guy who drops his keys in the gutter one dark night, and walks ten feet to the nearest street light to look for them\u2014because that\u2019s where he can see?<\/p>\n
So often, we focus our efforts on what\u2019s convenient, even when it isn\u2019t sensible or balanced.\u00a0 This is mildly amusing when a canine\u2019s coiffure or a guy\u2019s keys are at stake.\u00a0 But on the world stage, the phenomenon isn\u2019t so funny.<\/p>\n
One example is the tendency of organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and the U.N.\u2019s Human Rights Council to disproportionately blame and denounce Israel for the problems in the Middle East.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the broader, and much tougher, mission\u2014improving the lot of dissidents, minorities, women and gays in oppressive regimes\u2014is relegated to the back seat.<\/p>\n
HRW, originally founded to shine light on closed societies, support basic freedoms and extend help to dissidents, was recently criticized by its own founder, Robert L. Bernstein, who is no longer with HRW.\u00a0 In an October 2009 editorial for the New York Times<\/em>, Bernstein explains, \u201c[HRW] always recognized that open societies have faults and commit abuses.\u00a0 But we saw that they have the ability to correct them\u2014through vigorous public debate, an adversarial press and many other mechanisms that encourage reform.\u201d<\/p>\n For that reason, Bernstein explains, HRW previously focused its efforts on closed societies with poor human rights records (think Soviet gulag and Chinese labor camps).\u00a0 But because HRW no longer makes the distinction between closed and open societies, Bernstein says, \u201cthe plight of their citizens who would most benefit from the kind of attention a large and well-financed international human rights organization can provide is being ignored as Human Rights Watch\u2019s Middle East division prepares report after report on Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, last year, HRW issued more publications critical of Israel than of Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Libya combined.<\/p>\n I\u2019m by no means saying that Israel shouldn\u2019t be held accountable for its actions.\u00a0 But for perspective, we would do well to consider Daniel Patrick Moynihan\u2019s observation that \u201cthe amount of violations of human rights in a country is always an inverse function of the amount of complaints about human rights violations heard from there.\u00a0 The greater the number of complaints being aired, the better protected are human rights in that country.\u201d<\/p>\n Given that human rights watchdogs have limited resources, why do they choose to put an open society, population 7.4 million, under a microscope?\u00a0 Why do they distort their mission by obsessively finding fault with one tiny democracy trying to defend itself?<\/p>\n Are these organizations simply anti-Israel or anti-Semitic?\u00a0 Are they na\u00efve, unaware that they\u2019re giving ammunition to oppressive regimes sworn to Israel\u2019s destruction?\u00a0 Are they in the pocket of some of those regimes?<\/p>\n In any case, it is precisely Israel\u2019s openness and self-examination that makes it an easy target of criticism\u2014especially in contrast to other nations in the neighborhood, who guard information jealously and are difficult to investigate.\u00a0 So difficult, in fact, that making inroads would require the concerted efforts of human rights organizations actually, uh, doing their jobs.<\/p>\n Perhaps these organizations are hoping that with all the controversy they stir up, we won\u2019t notice that the Arab and Iranian governments\u2014which rule over about 350 million people\u2014continue their appalling human rights violations.<\/p>\n Published in Piedmont Post<\/em>, March 3, 2010<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A funny thing happened recently while I was giving my dog a haircut.\u00a0 I had planted myself next to him, trimming as much as possible before he could object.\u00a0 Suddenly I realized I was getting overly zealous on his left hind leg. Mind you, his hair wasn\u2019t extra-long there.\u00a0 It was simply that the left…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104,105,106],"yoast_head":"\n