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Rating: 
Summary: a stimulating collection of essays on liberty and tolerance
Review: +AH4-To what extent should a liberal democracy tolerate extremist groups or hate speech? Are the media entitled to give terrorist publicity without the imposition of restraints to protect public safety? These are difficult, even painful issues for any free society, particularly so for Israel after the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin in November 1995. They are discussed in this collection of essays.The essays cover a variety of related topics: the costs of tolerance, the treatment of speech+AH4-+AH4- advocating violence and of hate speech, the responsibilities of the media when faced with threats to give publicity to terrorism (articles by Joseph Eliot Magnet, David Boeyink and Edmund Lambeth), and the regulation of international communications, particularly on the Internet (Michael Jaffe). Some contributions approach the topic from a legal perspective (David Feldman, Owen Fiss, Irwin Cotler, Richard Moon, David Goldberg), others from that of political philosophy (Raphael Cohen-Almagor,+AH4-+AH4- L.W. Sumner, Sam Lehman-Wilzig). Many writers develop their theme from a Canadian, Israeli, British, or United States perspective, exploring the implications of recent developments within a particular jurisdiction. Many essays implicitly share an underlying theme: liberalism carries significant costs. It is clearly articulated in the contributions of Frederick Schauer and Harvey Chisick. The public, rather than the victim, should be asked to bear the costs of tolerating harmful speech. +AH4-+AH4- In summary, this is a stimulating collection of essays on subjects of concern for all liberal democracies. Cohen-Almagor's introduction skillfully knits together the various themes as well as making some perceptive points of his own.+AH4-
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