If It Walks Like a Duck - The Levy Committee's Flawed Findings

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, then… well… apparently it’s still not a duck.

Or so it would seem according to the findings of a committee set up by Benjamin Netanyahu to  examine the legal aspects of land ownership in the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria, if you prefer. 

The Levy committee found that Israel is not in fact an occupying force and recommends that all Israeli outposts be legally recognised.  Interestingly it also recommends fundamental changes to laws concerning the West Bank, including  getting rid of a long list of laws, High Court rulings and  procedures “in order to permit Jews to settle in all of Judea and Samaria”.

Wow!  No occupation to worry about then…  What a relief.

Now purely by coincidence, one of our neighbours’ leaders also recently set up a committee of his own.  Over the weekend, Syrian President, Bashar Assad gave an interview to a German TV journalist.  Now for those of you who might not be aware, according to most reputable news organisations, it is estimated so far, around 15,000 innocents have been killed or murdered or slaughtered, or massacred, you can take your pick of language.

However when asked by this journalist if the Syrian security forces were perhaps responsible for the killing of  innocent civilians, despite all evidence to the contrary, Bashar confidently stated that no, Syrian security forces had not killed any innocents.  It’s those nasty terrorists “what done it “, supported by the US of course.

He knows this to be the case, because he set up a committee to investigate the killings.  Apparently this committee found that the President and his security forces have had no involvement and are not responsible for any of these atrocities. I am sure the Syrian people are hugely relieved.

So much for government appointed committees.

To be honest, this is the kind of thing one might expect from a murderous dictator, but not, absolutely not  from the Prime Minister of the “only democracy” in the Middle East.

We need to be far better than that and apparently far better than we are!

At the end of the day, if we want to be a duck, perhaps we should start walking, talking and looking, the part…  Quack, Quack…