The idiocy of World Opinion - an article from Investors Business Daily

World opinion is both anecdotal and cultural -- as such, it is fairly useless as a test of anything. --- jds

Palestinian supporters gather at Brussels' Foreign Ministry on Monday to protest Israel's commando raid on ships bound for the Gaza Strip. AP View Enlarged Image

Globaloney: That creature known as "world opinion" is stirring again, rousted for the first time since the campaign of Barack Obama or maybe the Iraq War. Now it's condemning Israel. And as usual, it's wrong.

But that hasn't ever stopped a good street demonstration. Monday's ship confrontation between terrorist-sponsored blockade runners and Israeli armed forces has drawn an avalanche of global condemnation against Israel, with loud street protests and condemnatory words from the leaders who either represent them or else fear them.

Demonstrations sprang up like mushrooms in such far-flung places as The Hague, Algiers, Kuala Lumpur, London, Prague, Lahore, Stockholm, Malmo, Gothenburg, New York, Sligo, Letterkenny, Copenhagen, Oxford, Brussels, Cairo, Frankfurt, Beirut, Sanaa in Yemen, Tampa, Montreal, Oslo, Burlington, Vt., and even in Jerusalem in the days since the confrontation.

So when one hears "we are the world," the unifying emblem would now seem to be a burning Israeli flag.

Their leaders are just as bad, their knee-jerk condemnations employing neither statecraft nor strategic interests.

Tyrants and democratic leaders alike from Greece, South Africa, Brunei, Iran, India, Ireland, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Spain, New Zealand, Venezuela and Germany all issued condemnations to Israel alone for the Gaza incident.

Multilateral organizations like the European Union, the Arab League and the African Union also found common ground without awaiting facts, issuing their condemnations, too.

But let's be clear here — these demonstrators who get so much camera time don't represent responsible citizens. They condemn Israel with one set of rules and ignore provocations from terrorists, falling right into the trap of useful idiocy. Then they imagine themselves on a higher moral plane, done cheap and easy by protesting.

Their hypocrisy is breathtaking. They say they abhor killing, but did nothing when North Korea torpedoed a South Korean ship last month, killing 46 sailors.

They're the same crowd that protested President Bush over the U.S. war in Iraq. Their motivation: A perception of U.S. weakness.

The Obama administration has signaled its decreased commitment to Israel, both in repeated public condemnations and in its abusive, uncivil treatment of its head of state at the White House.

This is fertile ground for terrorists and their allies, who know they can use the useful idiots of "global" opinion to do their work for them. In this case, the Obama administration's response to this has been to condemn Israel and give terrorists a pass.

So not only is this a mess, it's also emboldened the terrorists, who've dispatched a new provocation ship, the Irish-owned MV Rachel Corrie to head toward Gaza for a new confrontation.

There is one and only one way to stop this, and that's to show resolve. When President Ronald Reagan attempted to position defensive missiles in Western Europe in 1982, he drew massive protests on perceptions that he could be made to back off.

When Reagan refused, the protests disappeared.

That's the kind of resolve the Obama administration needs to be showing right now. But with a president who considers popularity with "the world" paramount and working with multilateral organizations a substitute for diplomacy, the odds are not good he'll show any real leadership. But if he doesn't, who will?

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