Does "PETA" stand for
People Excusing Terrorist Atrocities? A truly bizarre story about some
very sick people.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com
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Every so often, I violate my own policy against giving PETA -- People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- the publicity it desperately desires
and doesn't deserve.
I do this whenever the Norfolk-based animal rights
group does something so astonishing, it simply can't be ignored.
This is one of those times.
But our story doesn't begin in Norfolk. It begins
in Israel.
On Jan. 26, a bomb exploded on the road between
Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion.
As terror attacks go, this one was minor. Most of
us didn't hear about it because, with the exception of one bus passenger
treated for shock, no one was injured.
Thank G-d.
Palestinian terrorists delivered the bomb to its
destination by donkey. They strapped explosives and a remote device to the
animal and detonated the bomb by cell phone as an Israeli bus passed by.
The donkey, of course, was killed.
You know where this is going, don't you?
That's right. PETA, the group that never before
expressed concern about the carnage in Israel, is suddenly outraged.
All because a donkey died.
Never mind that, according to the Israeli embassy,
which keeps track of such grim statistics, 729 Israelis have perished in
terrorist attacks since September 2000.
It took the death of a donkey for PETA to find its
voice.
Leave the animals out of it, they cry.
Determined to make Hampton Roads look like a
breeding ground for wackos to the rest of the world, PETA President Ingrid
Newkirk this week fired off a fax to Yasser Arafat.
She began the letter with a polite salutation:
"Your Excellency.''
I can think of lots of titles for Arafat.
Excellency isn't among them.
But I digress.
". . . We have received many calls and letters
from people shocked at the bombing . . . in which a live donkey, laden
with explosives, was intentionally blown up.
"All nations behave abominably in many ways
when they are fighting their enemies, and animals are always caught in the
crossfire. The U.S. Army abandoned thousands of loyal service dogs in
Vietnam. (Odd. No mention of our dead soldiers, MIAs, POWs or even loyal
South Vietnamese allies who were left behind, but again, I digress.)
"Al-Qaeda and the British government have both
used animals in hideously cruel biological weaponry tests.''
Brace yourselves. It gets worse.
"We watched on television as stray cats in
your own compound fled as best they could from Israeli bulldozers''
Fleeing cats! PETA confronts the horror of war.
"Animals claim no nation. They are in
perpetual involuntary servitude to all humankind, and, although they pose
no threat and own no weapons, human beings always win the undeclared war
against them. . . .
"If you have the opportunity,'' Newkirk
beseeched Arafat, "will you please add to your burdens my request
that you appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of
this conflict?'' In other words, Newkirk seems to be begging the
Palestinians not to stop the slaughter, but rather to find a different
delivery system for their bombs.
Appalling.
Perhaps Ms. Newkirk would prefer that the
Palestinians used suicide bombers instead of burros. Oh, that's right,
they usually do.
Lisa Lange, PETA's vice president of
communications, told me yesterday that Newkirk's letter was written after
their offices had been bombarded with calls from PETA members who had
learned of the donkey bomb.
Lange said it's PETA's philosophy that human
cruelty often begins with animal cruelty.
The Washington Post this week asked Ms. Newkirk if
she had "considered asking Arafat to persuade those who listen to him
to stop blowing up people as well'' as animals.
Her response should be required reading for all
would-be members of PETA:
"It's not my business to inject myself into
human wars,'' Newkirk told the Post.
How does one respond to such moral ambiguity?
How about a body count of human bodies?
In January 2003 -- the month in which the donkey
died -- 21 Israelis and eight foreign nationals were killed by terrorists
in Israel, and 127 others were injured.
Yet PETA weeps for the ass.
Radio talk show host Tony Macrini got it right when
he remarked recently that "PETA'' was an acronym for "People
Embarrassing the Tidewater Area.''
One can only hope that Newkirk left off her Norfolk
return address on that asinine letter to Arafat.
