Judea Pearl on Cavuto

Hoping some of you caught the fabulous interview that Encino's own Judea Pearl, father of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, gave at the top of "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on Fox today (the show re-runs later if you missed it). The topic was opposition to the White House apparently nudging towared Iraq withdrawal, and Dr. Pearl gave a stirring, poignant, and eye-opening assessment of the situation, condemning the moral relativists who compare U.S. military actions in Iraq to heinous terrorist activities.

Dr. Pearl has a piece in the New Republic that echoes the themes on Cavuto:

"Indeed, following an advance screening of A Mighty Heart, a panelist representing the Council on American-Islamic Relations reportedly said, 'We need to end the culture of bombs, torture, occupation, and violence. This is the message to take from the film.' The message that angry youngsters are hearing is unfortunate: All forms of violence are equally evil; therefore, as long as one persists, others should not be ruled out. This is precisely the logic used by Mohammed Siddiqui Khan, one of the London suicide bombers, in his videotape on Al Jazeera. 'Your democratically elected government,' he told his British countrymen, 'continues to perpetrate atrocities against my people ... . [W]e will not stop.'

Danny's tragedy demands an end to this logic. There can be no comparison between those who take pride in the killing of an unarmed journalist and those who vow to end such acts—no ifs, ands, or buts. Moral relativism died with Daniel Pearl, in Karachi, on January 31, 2002."

Dr. Pearl kindly contacted me after I wrote the column on the "Mighty Heart" screening with the loopy panel discussion afterward, where I reported on the troubling "buts" heard there. In addition to his New Republic piece, I'd like to bring everyone's attention to another much-needed piece recently written by Dr. Pearl: "Anti-Zionism is Racism," from New York Jewish Week.