To: New York Times <letters@nytimes.com>

Re: Helping Israel by not ignoring its culpability

Date: Fri, 29 March 2002

 

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Dear Sir/Madam,

I am probably just as pro Israel as Bob Herbert (lets face it, Jews are a part of Western Civilisation and we identify and sympathise with them far more than we do with the Arabs), but in his commentary, “Betraying Humanity”, in Wednesday’s NYT he is not really helping Israel, or the rest of us. Rather, by ignoring Israel’s own culpability for the hatred and violence directed against it, he is helping to perpetuate the situation he so deplores.

The violence is not complete madness, but largely a reaction to foreign occupation, humiliation and injustice.

After winning the war, Israel has had more than 30 years to win the peace – and failed. If a foreign power were occupying America, as Israel is occupying Palestinian lands, those who sacrificed their lives resisting the occupiers, no matter how bloody their acts, would be celebrated as heroes, just as the Palestinians celebrate their martyrs.