You quoted a report: "President Herzog added that whatever the international business community does in the years ahead, it should not only focus on the financial or short-term aspects but also should "look at it in terms of peace and social justice for humanity."
I'm very skeptical about this. (I don't know anything about President Herzog, and this comment is not directed at him specifically - obviously.)
The issue we face is that most often these statements are just words - but just because they are just words does not mean that they don't have utility in concrete situations. Unfortunately, they are usually used as weapons of power and domination.
Take, for example, VP Gore's remarks when he visited Malaysia. Wasn't that a spirited call for freedom and democracy coming from a lieutenant for the empire? Did it have anything to do, perchance, with the song of capital controls that PM Matahir had been singing before the rest of falling Asia? Suddenly America wants to see democracy in Malaysia? How gallant of us!
But, this was only a relatively insignificant use of the politics of "morality." My greatest fear of the moment is that this same politics will send us to war in "Yugoslavia."
Quincy