This a link to one of the more distressing if not excruciating pieces of video I've ever seen--the capture, torture and throat-slitting of a rare giant sea turtle who had the misfortune to swim too close to the shores of Gaza and be caught by an Arab fisherman.  It reminded me of  two things: one, the observation from  Isi Liebler, whose column I have linked to below, about what he called  Israel's greatest failure, namely:

...its reluctance to expose to the world the criminal nature of our Palestinian neighbor, the PA no less than Hamas. To this day, we continue understating the barbaric culture of death and the ongoing anti-Semitic incitement which permeates every sector of society under the jurisdiction of our Palestinian neighbor: mothers joyfully dispatching their own children to Paradise as suicide bombers; schools (even kindergartens), mosques and media inciting to kill Jews; Mahmoud Abbas, our peace partner, providing pensions for families of terrorists; spontaneous street celebrations erupting whenever terrorists succeed in killing Israelis in restaurants or shopping malls. The failure by our government to internationally expose such barbaric behavior reflects its slavish denial of reality. 

I feel the United States has played and plays a similar role in the denial of reality when it comes not only to the depredations of jihadis, but to the vast differences in Western and Islamic culture. Which is why I am linking to this bit of video about the last tragic day in the life of a very old and majestic sea creature. What would have happened to such an animal if it  had washed ashore at Haifa or, for that matter, Cape Cod? It would be celebrated, not slaughtered--and certainly not tortured with its throat slit.   

The other thing the video reminded me of were some unvarnished cultural observations  Gen. George Patton made in his his journal in 1943--a long way away from politically correct  speech codes, self-censorship, fears of "giving offense," and, in Europe today, indictment and possible jail time for the "crime" of violating  "hate speech" codes even in private writings.  In 1943, Patton wrote what he thought about what he saw--in this case about the cultures of cruelty to animals he had witnessed in his travels--without any PC padding. He wrote:

Another similarity between the Arab and the Mexican is the utter callousness with which both treat animals.  Neither an Arab nor a Mexican would think of unpacking an animal during a prolonged halt.  If the beast is chafed raw, the Arab does not even bother to treat the wound with lard, which is the invariable panacea with the Mexican. He just lets it bleed and trusts to Allah.  Because a horse is dead lame is no reason for not working him.

All the animals are head-shy and many are blind as a result of the cheerful custom method of beating them on the head with a stick.

The method of castrating sheep and cattle is unspeakably cruel.  I think that the reason that the horse and donkey are not altered is due to their architecture, which forbids the employment of the Arab method.
One cannot but ponder the question: What if the Arabs had been Christians.?  To me it seems certain that the fatalistic teachings of Mohammed and the utter degradation of women is the outstanding cause for he arrested development of the Arab.  He is exactly as he was around the year 700 while we have kept on developing. Here , I think , is a text for some eloquent sermon of the virtues of Christianity.

Patton was a little busy for sermons  as he would soon be enaged in reconquering the European continent from the Nazis. But interesting how all of this occurred to him in the meantime.