December 26, 2012

What the lobby could learn from the lobby

For some reason the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, seemed like a watershed event to many people.  There was an immediate demand for more gun control followed by a defence of the status quo by the gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association (NRA).

On Christmas Eve, The Algemeiner (the self-styled "fastest growing Jewish newspaper in America) reported that the CEO of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, was touting Israel as a role model in preventing these mass shootings in schools.
Israel had a whole lot of school shootings, until they did one thing. They said we’re going to stop it and they put armed security in every school and they have not had a problem since then.
So said LaPierre.

Well the Israelis didn't like that:
Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, told the New York Daily News that the situation in Israel was “fundamentally different” from that in the United States.
He then set out what he felt was "fundamentally different" but this is the bit that stood out to me:
It would be better not to drag Israel into what is an internal American discussion,
Perish the thought that Israel might feature in "an internal American discussion". Has Yigal Palmor ever heard of Mitt Romney or any other American presidential hopeful, successful or not?

No comments:

Post a Comment