Terroristas com tratamento preferencial

O artigo The Peculiar Institution: Understanding Why Palestinian Terror Is Different, de Lee Harris, é uma interessante tentativa de compreender as razões que explicam o facto de o terrorismo palestiniano ser considerado por muitos no Ocidente como uma prática menos condenável do que outras formas de terrorismo:###

What makes Palestinian terror uniquely privileged among all other forms of terror, even among those people who find other form of terrorism unacceptable? And why do so many well-meaning people in the West observe a double standard when it comes to the terrorism used by the Palestinians and the terrorism used by al Qaeda?

That such a double standard exists is hardly a matter of dispute. The Bush administration proved this point some time back by its condemnation of the Israeli government's killing of the Hamas leader, a man whose life had been dedicated to perfecting terrorism as a weapon to be used against innocent Israeli men, women, and children. And where the Bush administration condemns an Israeli action, it is fairly easy to imagine what the rest of the world's attitude on such a question would be.

What accounts for this?

To attempt to provide the answer to this question, I have identified three distinct sources of cant in defense of Palestinian terrorism, each of which may be summed up in the stock phrases that usually spring to the lips of those who are engaged in the process of defending or apologizing for Palestinian terrorism. They are:

(1) The "cycle of violence"
(2) The "legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people"
(3) The "Zionist occupation"

My reason for spending so much time dissecting the cant surrounding Palestinian terror is simple. I am convinced that the West shares much, if not most, of the blame for the most startling fact of our epoch, namely, the political triumph of Islamic terrorism.