[PEN-L:30656] Feedback from Ted Honderich

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Proyect,

Thanks for yours below.

Much appreciated.

All good wishes to Ken Hanly, whom I remember.

There is a paper rather like the Telegraph in Toronto. I attach a piece from
it.

Best,

Ted

-----Original Message-----
From: Louis Proyect [mailto:lnp3@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 17 September 2002 18:44
To: t.honderich@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: some feedback


I crossposted that nasty attack on you in the Telegraph on a couple of
leftwing email lists along with some stuff off your website. It elicited
this response which I thought you'd enjoy.

---

Ted Honderich was my classmate at the U of Toronto. He was perhaps the best
student in the class. Nice to see that he has come to no good according to
the hacks hired to smear any criticism of capitalism and US foreign policy.
It is amazing that these reviews actually present almost no evidence for
their conclusions or rather slurs.


Cheers, Ken Hanly

===

Globe and Mail leader/editorial Fri 20 Sept 02 -- print edition page A14

Terrorism's Apologists

The horrifying scene yesterday was one Israelis have come to know well.
The Palestinian suicide attacker set off his shrapnel-studded bomb on a
bus in downtown Tel Aviv. The five other people killed included the bus
driver, his body blackened and slumped at the wheel. Torn bodies lay in
the seats.

The bombing was the second in two days and broke a respite of sorts --
there had been no such attacks since early August. Israel, during that
time, has maintained its harsh grip on the occupied territories,
resulting in the deaths of more Palestinians. Israeli tanks moved
yesterday into Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah.

The Palestinian Authority has condemned the terror attacks, saying they
give the Israeli government "the pretext" to continue occupying
Palestinian land.

In that, at least, the PA is accurate. The intifada has made a peace
treaty so much more difficult because Israelis are so fearful about
their security. Some Palestinian leaders recognize the obvious -- that
the bloody attacks are both morally repugnant and tactically disastrous.

One wonders, then, how anyone anywhere could excuse such actions, much
less praise them. Yet, many do so, including some Western academics.

Ted Honderich, for instance. Mr. Honderich is a Canadian-born philospher
who has spent decades teaching at University College London. His new
book, After the Terror, lays much of the blame for Sept. 11 on the
Western world, particularly the United States.

Mr. Honderich says, in essence, that Western citizens are guilty -- if
not of acts of commission against the world's poor, then of acts of
omission. Money spent on a car is money that could have been spent to
better effect. Not doing so, he suggests, is morally wrong.

There is no evidence that Osama bin Laden or the 19 hijackers meant to
make a statement about global poverty. And Mr. Honderich denounces their
actions as hideous. Yet he does endorse violence in the case of
Palestinian suicide bombers.

"Those Palestinians who have resorted to necessary killing have been
right to try to free their people, and those who have killed themselves
in the cause of their people have indeed sanctified themselves," he
writes. "This seems to me a terrible truth. . . ."

Mr. Honderich planned to donate to Oxfam Great Britain his advance and
royalties from the book. Oxfam has major Canadian operations and is one
of the most effective international organizations combating Third World
poverty. It does development work in the West Bank, related to health
care and education.

We wondered why this organization would accept such funds, considering
its humanitarian mission and Mr. Honderich's odious viewpoint. Oxfam
officials have now reviewed the book. They have refused Mr. Honderich's
offer.

Good for them.