Justice, Justice, Shall You Pursue!

This week's Torah portion dealing with judges and the administration of justice contains the famous words "tzedek, tzedek tirdof- Justice, Justice shall you pursue."

Unfortunately, in today's world, that maxim just doesn't seem to apply anymore.

Let me give you two recent examples.

First, you may have seen or read that the only man convicted in the Lockerbee bombing over Scotland in 1988 was freed from prison the other day and returned home to Libya where he received a hero's welcome.

Yes, a man sentenced to life imprisonment for bombing an airplane and causing the deaths of 270 people was freed because the Scottish Justice Minister had compassion for him because he is dying.

That's justice, right?

Second, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet published a story claiming that Israeli soldiers are abducting Palestinians in order to steal their organs.

For those of you who don't know what this is about, this is the old anti-Semitic charge of blood libel. And it must be true. After all here is what the editor of Aftonbladet said about the story:

"The publication "stands behind the demand for an international inquiry regarding Israel's alleged body-snatching. We had many discussions on whether to publish the article or not, and to the best of my knowledge, there are no facts there that are incorrect."

No facts that are incorrect? Of course not. After all, the author of the article claims that he interviewed a "Palestinian witness," but "whether it's true or not - I have no idea, I have no clue."

Right again. Why let the facts get in the way of a good anti-Semitic story!

The freeing of a convicted terrorist.

A blood libel in Sweden.

A human rights group raising money in Saudi Arabia by criticizing Israel.

And Galid Shalit, who celebrated his twenty third birthday this week in his third year of captivity, without anyone being allowed to see or speak to him? Where is the expression of humanity and compassion for him?

Oh wait, he's just another Israeli, another Jew. And who cares about another Jew?

Certainly not Human Rights Watch. Certainly not Aftonbladet. Certainly not the Scottish Justice Minister.

But this is the world we live in. A world where the definition of justice is turned on its head.

And I'll leave you with this postscript (courtesy of David Bernstein). It turns out that the Swedish foreign ministry office in Israel also publically denounced the article.

But then the Swedish foreign ministry then criticized its staff in Israel for denouncing the article...... on the grounds that Sweden believes in free speech.

Of course that same Swedish foreign ministry has had a very different definition of free speech when it comes to denouncing articles and pictures that offend Muslims.

But that's understandable, isn't it? It's all in the pursuit of justice.