Brutality in the Middle East

The news from Syria that the Assad regime has again slaughtered hundreds of its own citizens should surprise no one familiar with the brutality of the Middle East. There is no one more brutal towards Arabs--and Persians--than their own leaders and at times, fellow citizens.

Will this reality quiet the litany of Westerner intellectuals wailing about nonexistent Israeli "atrocities" towards the Palestinians? Not likely. As Jacques Berlinerblau, director of the Program for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University, put it in his May 2011 opinion piece, "The 'Arab Spring,' Israel, and the Silence of the Academy":

Having directed Jewish Studies programs in universities for most of my career I can assure you of this: If Israel were to inflict the type of violence on Palestinians that Arab regimes (and Iranian ones) casually inflict on their own dissenting populations in the course of one day, many colleges across America would be virtually shut down.