The Amazing Day

I saw an amazing letter today in The Day of New London, Connecticut. The unnamed writer (I'm not sure whether that was a technical error on the web site or cowardice on the part of the writer) shows an amazing ignorance of history, writing as if the Arab-Israeli conflict began with the election of the terrorist Hamas to run the Palestinian Authority.

He writes: "The cause of the hatred toward the Jews has to do with the continuing
confiscation of land and destruction of Palestinian crops as well as
the demolition of their homes and the building and enlargement of
settlements."

Ironically, the Arabs just "celebrated" what they call the "Nakba," or catastrophe, the re-establishment of Israel in 1948. They are the only people in the world who are angry about the fact that another people has an independent state. Had they, at that time, joined the Jews in agreeing to the Partition Plan, a heavily biased plan which would have left the Arabs with approximately 85 percent of Mandatory Palestine, including the portion east of the Jordan River, they could be celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of their own independence next year.

It was this hatred of Jews and the very idea that is behind the Arab-Israeli conflict, to which Hamas is a relative newcomer.

As usual, the Israel-haters get cause and effect reversed, while also accusing Israel and its supporters of sins they are guilty of. In this instance, the writer accuses someone else of "reading from a Zionist
script."

It was the writer, of course, who was reading from an anti-Zionist script.

In his final paragraph, the writer rhetorically asks "What is the problem with refusing that Israel has a 'right to exist?,'" saying it "will depend on negotiations and on recognition
by the international community."

Hamas, of course, has repeatedly insisted it will never recognize the right of Israel to exist, while the international community, despite the unanimous opposition of the Arab states, welcomed Israel into the United Nations.

In the same issue, another writer, Jerry Silberberg, implied a false moral equivalency between the terrorism of the Palestinian Arabs and the defensive measures taken by Israel to protect its innocent people.

He says "There are many forms of violence that are being perpetrated by both
sides" and that "only when both sides
renounce violence and put down their arms will there be peace."

He is correct on the first point, but in a misleading way, and only partially correct in the second.

Palestinian Arabs violently murder innocent Israelis using terrorism as a strategy; the charters of both Hamas and Fatah insist violence is essential to their goal of destroying Israel. Israel responds, sometimes violently, against the murderers to protect its people.

Regarding the second, if the Palestinian Arabs lay down their arms and renounce violence, there will be no war, but if the Israelis lay down their arms there will be no Israel.

The key need is for the Palestinian Arabs to reconcile themselves to the existence of Israel.