I have never understood the logic behind defending an act by pointing to a worse act by someone else. Imagine the thief in court:
"Your honour, considering that all I did was to shoplift some high-end electronics and was not even armed at the time, why are you wasting your time trying me when we consider that my neighbour actually killed someone?"
Following that logic, China should be considered a close ally because North Korea is worse; Iran should be considered a good friend because the Taliban is worse. It's OK for Canada to turn people in for torture because we're not the ones doing the actual torturing after all. As long as we are not scraping the bottom of the barrel, we should hear nothing but high praise for our actions.
Is it really about religion or ethnicity? According to the Jewish Faith, adultery is prohibited. So what was a practicing Jew doing sleeping around out of wedlock? Hmmm...
If Israel were serious about its religion, shouldn't a good old lapidation be called for for both of them as per the scriptures for vilation of one of the ten commandments?
The fact that they should be so concerned about the Arab's violation of Jewish law but not of the Hebrew's seems a double standard to me. Seeing that she was doing this in violation of Jewish law, she should not be considered a Jew at least at the time she was committing the offenseif we were following that logic.
When our government allies itself with one country or another, it is essentially implying that it accepts that country's policies. There is a difference between allies and friends. Between friendly nations, our friendship does not necessarily suggest we necessarily agree with all it does; and while we may go to war on behalf of a friendly nation, we do so willingly.
By being allied to another country, we are actively taking sides, and are required by treaty to defend that ally whether we agree with it or not, whether its problems are self-inflicted or not.
This is where I think Canada ought to scrap all alliances and focus instead on developing friendships. This way, while countries might know that they could count on Canada to defend them when they are in legitimate need, they'd also know they can't count on Canada to bail them out for their own stupidity. Seeing that Israel is not much better than the other countries in the region, while it might be fine for Canada to pursue friendly relations with Israel, any kind of formal alliance ought to be scrapped.
Both the Hebrew and the Arab were 'Romans' though. So which Roman law should apply then? That of the government, which in this case would be Israel? Sure. But then I guess Romans can certainly discriminate against their own subjects.