Daily Archives: 16 May 2024

“Resist the Prosecution but Obey the Court”

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Former Texas District Judge Robert Barton wrote that former President Donald Trump (R) is wrong to ignore the gag orders that the judge in his Manhattan trial had levied against him: there are legal processes by which Trump could seek redress.

Barton is correct as far as he goes.

However, it’s…foolish…to blindly obey—which he is not advocating—and there are other avenues along which to Resist the Prosecution, as the headline has it.

One of those avenues is to challenge the requirement with the immediate action of disobedience, whether statute or judicial order, and force the prosecutor or the judge promptly to defend and enforce the requirement. The challenge thus emphasizes the illegitimacy of the requirement, if such is the case, and gets it modified or tossed. Or the disobeyer sanctioned if he cannot prove that case.

This is the stuff of civil disobedience, and it often proceeds at a faster pace than the stately glacial pace of legal process. Often, too, time is of the essence.

Sort of Firm Talk, Timid Action

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Two letter writers in Sunday’s Letters section of The Wall Street Journal responded concretely to the WSJ‘s editorial of the prior Tuesday.

I can’t agree with you that President Biden offered the “right words” when he said, “‘Never again,’ simply translated for me, means never forget” (“How Not to Remember the Holocaust,” Review & Outlook, May 8). While historical memory is important, it is the easy part of “never again.”
The hard part, for President Biden at least, is understanding that “never again” means that Israel and the Jewish people will never again tolerate—and should never have to tolerate—threats to their existence such as the “ring of fire” ignited against Israel by Iran and its proxies.
With his watered-down and tortured definition, Mr. Biden betrays the clear meaning of “never again.” With his denial of critical military support, he betrays Israel and the Jewish people in their hour of need.
Ben Orlanski
Beverly Hills, Calif.

And

Your editorial reminds me of an experience I had roughly 20 years ago at a meeting of the members of the European Union in Berlin. I was a representative of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. The meeting was to establish antisemitism as an evil condemned by the EU members. At the meeting, each country recounted its efforts to establish Holocaust memorials.
When they were finished, Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, asked, “That’s what you are doing for dead Jews. What are you doing for Jews living in your country?” Stunned silence followed.
Karen Venezky
Chicago

What they said. And it particularly applies to Progressive-Democrat President Joe Biden’s current betrayal of Israel.