On September 15, 2010, anti-Israel fanatic Stanley Heller had a typically biased, malicious and factually-challenged letter published in the New Haven Register.
I sent a response to the editor the next day and was quickly informed they planned to publish it. When it didn't appear within a couple of weeks, I checked and was reassured they intended to publish it; this happened again a couple of weeks later.
When two letters appeared responding to a far more recent op-ed on the Arab-Israeli conflict, I inferred that, regardless of the editor's stated intention, my letter was not going to be published as submitted. As much had occurred in the interim, particularly blunt but unreported (in Connecticut) statements by Mahmoud Abbas making it clear the lack of any peace agreement was a result of Arab intransigence, I sent a new letter on October 19 (nearly five weeks after my original letter) asking that it be published.
Thirteen days later, my original letter was finally published, approximately six and a half weeks after it was submitted. It was also edited in a way which significantly weakened its message.
Here are the letter as published, the original as submitted and the alternative that wasn't published.
Letter about Mideast has 'perverted' ideas
Published November 1, 2010
In his letter, Stanley Heller accuses George Will of writing a column "replete with bias, errors and absurd exaggerations." That description does aptly describes Heller's letter.
Almost everyone agrees that the election of Hamas represented the will of Palestinians, but few sensible people agree with Heller that America and Israel should reward the Palestinians for electing a terrorist group committed to the destruction of Israel and Western civilization.
Elections have consequences. If anything has turned Gaza into anything resembling a prison, it is the repressive Hamas government. In contrast, Israel has been acting to mitigate the Gazans' self-inflicted disaster, pouring so much assistance in that the people there reportedly have a higher standard of living than in Egypt and Turkey.
The participation of Hamas violated the legal requirement that candidates neither "commit or advocate racism" nor "pursue the implementation of their aims by unlawful, non-democratic means." Of course, so did the participation of Fatah.
It is also worth noting that Mahmoud Abbas' term in office officially ended Jan. 9, 2009.
The Palestinians are governed by separate, warring governments of questionable legality, led by someone whose term of office ended long ago.
Given the absurdity, perhaps Heller can be excused for having a perverted perspective so divorced from reality.
Alan H. Stein
Waterbury
Editor's note: Alan H. Stein is president of Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting - Connecticut.
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Original Version
Submitted September 16, 2010
In his letter published September 15, Stanley Heller falsely accuses George Will of writing a column "replete with bias, errors and absurd exaggerations."
That description does aptly describe Heller's own letter.
Almost everyone agrees with Heller that the election of Hamas represented the will of the Palestinian Arabs, but few sensible people agree with him that America and Israel should reward the Palestinian Arabs for electing a terrorist group committed to the destruction not only of Israel, but ultimately Western civilization as well.
Sorry, Stan: elections have consequences.
If anything has turned Gaza into anything resembling a prison, it is the repressive Hamas government its people chose. In contrast, Israel has been acting to mitigate the Gazans' self-inflicted disaster, pouring so much assistance into Gaza the people there reportedly have a higher standard of living than their neighbors in Egypt and Turkey.
It should be borne in mind that the participation of Hamas did violate the legal requirement that candidates neither "commit or advocate racism" nor "pursue the implementation of their aims by unlawful non-democratic means." Of course, so did the participation of Fatah.
Also worth noting: Mahmoud Abbas' term in office officially ended January 9, 2009.
The Palestinian Arabs are governed by two separate, warring governments of questionable legality, led by someone whose term of office ended long ago.
Given the absurdity of the reality, perhaps Heller can be excused for having a perverted perspective so divorced from reality.
Updated Letter
Submitted October 19
There have been a number of articles about the Arab-Israeli conflict published recently, such as the October 17 article "Peace talk plan in Mideast may be crushed by building." Surprisingly there has been no reporting in the New Haven Register of statements by Mahmoud Abbas, leader not only of the Palestinian Authority but also of the PLO and Fatah, which clearly show the real reasons the Palestinian Arabs refused to negotiate for nearly two years and then walked out of the talks less than a month after their resumption.
In early September, Abbas said: "If they demand concessions on the rights of the refugees or the 1967 borders, I will quit. I can’t allow myself to make even one concession."
On October 15, Abbas said: "If we showed flexibility on these [core] issues the peace agreement would have been signed a long time ago."
In other words, the leader of the Palestinian Arabs quite clearly admitted he was not willing to compromise at all on any of the important issues and that it has been the inflexibility of the Arabs that has prevented peace!
Yet Abbas is generally, but obviously falsely, referred to as a "moderate," while Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who has made countless, unreciprocated concessions, is generally, but just as obviously falsely, labeled "hard-line."
If we want to help bring about peace, we need to face reality; ignoring the intransigence of even the most "moderate" of the Arab leaders and their unwillingness to engage in good faith negotiations only encourages that intransigence.
It's not that Abbas walked out of negotiations; he never really entered them.
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