Breivik Verdict So Wrong Yet So Right

Last week a Norwegian court decided that a man who could harbor such unfounded hatred, and who was capable of manifesting that hatred into the murder of almost eighty people (mostly teen-agers), was perfectly sane.  It is a sad state of affairs when this verdict, in an enlightened and modern society, is (almost) unarguably the right one.  

To decide that Breivik was insane would be to limit our understanding of hatred and xenophobia.  We would not be challenged to try to understand the motivations of the murderous.  Even the victims' families are content with the verdict.  While no one can honestly care about what this coward wanted, his actions (and demented sanity) may keep open the doors of understanding, and allow decent people to counter the rage that people like Anders Breivik and Mohammed Atta harbor for people they never met.  One day we will declare such people insane, but only after we've eliminated all other motivations (however well-grounded or baseless) for their desire to destroy.

Militants Intent on Taking Advantage of Egyptian/Israeli Trust

Militants attempted to attack Israel from the Sinai recently.  With Iran blowing up innocent Israeli civilians on vacation, the border along the Golan Heights boiling, and the IOC snubbing what should have been a thought-provoking and stirring tribute to all athletes who have been murdered throughout the modern Games, militants are attempting to use the trust built up over the years between Egypt and Israel to their murderous advantage.  This article highlights only the latest efffort.  


The two countries have been at ease over several decades, and even the election of a Muslim Brotherhood member has not undone years of progress.  Hopefully a band of Palestinian terrorists and their Egyptian cohorts won't reap the collaboration and cooperation  the two nations have sewn.