Chemo vs Grads

No doubt, you have heard the news reports that Palestinian terrorists in Gaza are once again firing short and long range missiles into Israeli cities.  Totally unprovoked.  Yesterday, I happened to be visiting friends in the southern city of Ashdod and we were enjoying a quiet afternoon meal in their home when the air raid sirens began their ominous shrill.  Immediately, twelve of us huddled into their bomb shelter that doubles as a walk-in cabinet and we waited in absolute silence (as Israelis do) to hear “the boom”.  Hear it we did as a long-range grad missile landed not terribly far away.  It was time to head back home to the north.  During that drive, we listened intently to the news while additional barrages of grads were launched against Israeli civilian population centers.     

Today in Emek, I was leading a group of visitors from England on a tour of our School for Hospitalized Children.  I introduced the group to Arrif and his fifteen year old son, Mohammed.  They come from Gaza.  They have been ‘living’ in Emek for ten months as young Mohammed is being treated for severe facial cancer.  Arrif speaks fluent Hebrew and I conducted a simultaneously translated Q&A session between him and the British visitors …

Q.  How do you feel here, among the Jews of Israel?

A.  Perfectly normal and at ease.  Grateful – so very grateful.

Q.  What does your family back in Gaza say about Mohammed’s treatment here?

A.  They are amazed and they send their sincere gratitude.  They cannot believe what has and is being done for Mohammed and me.

Q.  Do you know that missiles are again being fired from Gaza into Israeli cities?

A.  Yes.  I am ashamed.  The politicians and extremists are not “the people”.  We only want to live a normal life alongside you.    

    

Many ask, considering the asymmetrical vortex we are caught in … why do you help ‘them’?  The answer is simple – because that is who we are.  

It’s chemo vs grads.  You decide what and who is the problem. 

Support Emek … an example the world can learn from.

http://www.emekdonations.org/

Larry Rich

Director of Development

International Public Relations

Israel's Emek Medical Center

Phone in Israel ... 972-04-649 4417

Mobile in Israel ... 972-0505-737 641

Phone in New York ... 646-546 5970

Fax in Israel ... 972-04-813 5608

Email ... rich_l@clalit.org.il

Mailing address:

Emek Medical Center

Afula 18101

Israel

Intentional misrepresentation of facts MSM?

GS Don Morris, Ph.D.

As I watch the unfolding of the Shalit exchange across multiple television news channels, including Israeli, France, CNN, BBC and UK I find the most of the reporting disconcerting. Why? The reporters are either ill informed, intentional in distorting the truth or truly ignorant. There is no other possibility.

Let me clarify a point repeatedly, across almost all of these news stations regarding Shalit’s abduction. He was taken on 25 June 2006 by Hamas terrorists from Gaza in a cross-border raid. A Hamas terrorist group attacked a Merkava Tank Mark 3, which was guarding the security fence and an army post, both in Israeli territory. During the attack, the commander and a fellow tank member were killed. Shalit was abducted near the Kerem Shalom crossing as was dragged under the security fence into parts unknown in Gaza. This is a critical point, Hamas terrorists illegally entered Israel and kidnapped Gilad. He was not engaged in a battle or a war and was not ever granted POW status. Why? Simple, he was kidnapped.

He was kept in primarily inhumane situation, his eyeglasses taken from him most of the time, he lived in solitary confinement, he was NEVER, not one time allowed a visit by the international Red Cross. We had no actual evidence that he was alive until two years ago. Still, after the infamous “still alive” video no visit permitted by any humanitarian or health organization. This alone is illegal in terms of International Law and at the very least demonstrates the inhumane character of our enemy.

For the MSM media to not even mention this background material is disingenuous when they present an empathetic view of the poor, just released, prisoners. For the MSM not to focus upon the released criminals, many of who engaged in barbaric actions murderers of primarily civilians breaches the integrity that should be displayed by professional journalists. I note that all of this was missing-I know they possess these minimal details and have chosen to with hold from today’s stories.

This is no small detail; it is central to my point that the MSM are misrepresenting entire experience today. They have contributed the following:

Lead the viewing public to believe that the prisoners should be released; it is after all only humane. Never mind that many are murderers serving over 15 consecutive life sentences, they should be viewed with empathy. No, they should be seen for what they are, first-degree murderers and they did not have the courage to take on fighters, they murdered innocent civilians. They murdered children, women eating pizza at a favorite pizza joint. Imagine you are enjoying a Little Caesars or Incredible pizza with all the toppings surrounded by your family and then in an instant they were targeted and blown to pieces.

These prisoners deserved freedom and annulment of their crimes of blowing up innocent civilians on busses, ask the Roth’s if they have any sympathy for these terrorists?

The MSM does not hold Hamas or Fatah speakers to the truth regarding using International law to justify their positions. They are using the day’s release event, as we knew they would, to lie to the viewers. Article 5 of the Geneva Convention does not apply as these two groups are not state parties to the Geneva Convention applies to their “fighters” are not legally “protected persons” under the definition of the convention.

Either the “journalists” do not know international Law or they do. Whichever is the answer to this statement my response is the same. Shame on the MSM for not holding these speakers to two points: 1. Are you not using this event for political outcomes? 2. You know as well as we know, the Geneva Conventions do not apply to you, why are you being so deceitful?

There will be peace in the Middle East before the MSM ever steps up and does their job correctly. They do hold us in Israel to a higher standard, sometimes known as hypocrisy.

Gilad was kidnapped, held in inhumane conditions for 5 years. Israel was held hostage by Hamas, the international community who supported the untold inappropriate ratio of terrorist prisoners to one Israeli and the media would have you believe the world should feel compassion for their families. No compassion for the hundreds and hundreds of innocent civilians murdered by these barbarians. The media speaks not one negative word about the celebrations in the Arab villages. The MSM speaks nothing about the inappropriateness of dancing and celebration by Arab “leaders” for having murderers released unjustly. No, instead they pitch how now maybe the Israelis may be ready to re-engage in talks with these ruthless people. Yet another lie-you know and I know we in Israel have not been the ones to negotiate-tell the MSM to stop supporting terrorists with their distortions.

Yom Kippur Israel Appeal

This is the Yom Kippur Israel Appeal given by Ed Berns at Temple Beth Sholom in Hamden, Connecticut. TBS regularly distributes a valuable Israel Matters newsletter to its members. Israel Matters is also available on the TBS website.

Shabbat shalom,

A year passes quickly. It seems like yesterday that I was on this bimah urging you to fight the demonization of Israel and to make Israel a daily part of your life. That you should make an investment of time to be knowledgeable about the issues that Israel confronts daily. And, ultimately, I encouraged you to leave your comfort zone and actively advocate for Israel. I could give the same speech today - it would be just as timely, but that wouldn't express what is affecting Israel this year.

A lot can happen in a year. If you were sitting here last year praying that in the year to come Israel would see peace, then today you are sitting here a very disappointed person.

We've all heard about the Arab Spring. Democracy rising from the ashes of dictatorships. Mubarak and Gaddafi overthrown. Great for the Arab street and great for the world, right? I wish I could tell you that the Arab revolution will ease rather than exacerbate tensions in the Middle East, but from the early returns it doesn't look like it will deliver as advertised.

Take Egypt, for example. With Mubarak deposed it didn't take long for the Muslim Brotherhood to emerge as the only unified political party and it is rapidly securing its hold on the country.  The recent takeover of the Israeli embassy, the nurturing of relations with Iran, and the removal of security forces in the Sinai that facilitates the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, all of these result in Israel having been better off dealing with a ruthless dictator who knew that a cold peace with it, rather than confrontation was in his, and Egypt's, best interests.

In the last twelve months, Israel's relations with Turkey have deteriorated from being one of the most mutually beneficial to one of confrontation. Using Israel's reaction to last year's Flotilla incitement as justification, Turkey has flexed its geopolitical muscles to become a power broker in the region. In the process, its political balance tilted away from the democracies in the West to fall more in line with the traditional Islamic view of Israel. By recalling its ambassador, Turkey severed relations with Israel. Most recently it threatened to send its warships with the next flotilla to Gaza, risking a military confrontation with Israel in the process. The view from those on the inside is that Israel's relationship with Turkey is not recoverable.

Needless to say, nothing good has come out of Iran. Speaking at the UN, Ahmadinejad enjoyed the opportunity to again blast both the US and Israel. This year's rant denied the Holocaust, calling it an excuse for the foundation of the State of Israel that represented "ransom to the Zionists." In the meantime, the Iranian march toward nuclear independence accelerated despite attempts to encourage it to abandon its plan.

To all of that instability, we must add the increased inflexibility of the Palestinian Authority. While refusing to sit down with the Israelis to negotiate an elusive peace, it simultaneously ignored the urging of the US and other Western nations and proceeded down the dead-end path of using the comfortable surroundings of the UN to declare unilateral statehood. In other words, the goal of the Palestinians was to achieve the land without achieving the peace.

There was one significant, bright spot to report. During the past twelve months, many felt whipsawed by the changes in President Obama's posture toward Israel. In May - for the first time publicly - the president announced that it was the official position of the US that Israel should negotiate peace with the Palestinians using the pre-1967 borders as the starting point. Remember: With those borders, parts of Jerusalem, including the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest place, would revert to Arab control. Ignoring realities on the ground, Israel would have to start fresh and negotiate for them. Notably missing was a pronouncement by the President that any peace agreement must recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and that Palestine must be for the Palestinians. This prompted a public rebuke - and more bad press for Israel - when Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu responded that those borders were indefensible and would not be the starting point for renewed negotiations. Relations between Israel and the US had reached a very low point.

This month, in an incredible turnaround, President Obama spoke at the UN in response to the Palestinian bid for statehood. In a speech that has been described as missing only a portrait of Theodore Hertzl in the background, President Obama provided the strongest support for Israel of his presidency. The president stressed America's recognition of and commitment to Israel's security concerns. "Let's be honest," he said, "Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it" and "Israel's children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them." Capping his support, the president made the point he should have made in May when he very clearly articulated the land of Israel as the "historic homeland" of the Jewish people.

With all of that as background, I stand before you today to appeal to your love of Israel by asking that you affirmatively stand with and demonstrate your devotion to her. I know things are tight. But as we know, Israel is getting squeezed pretty hard, too.

As American Jews it is up to us to declare our solidarity with Israel. There are many ways to show your support, and with the variety of Israel-related charities and organizations you are sure to find one that fits your interests. Some you know well: Hadassah, tree planting through the Jewish National Fund, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, the organization dedicated to Israel advocacy and which the Rabbi and I are both members. These are wonderful organizations and well worth your support. There are many more, some of which you might not be aware. Some of those are described on the handout you found on your chairs this morning. For example, last night Rabbi Scolnic commented on the infrastructure needs of Israel, and mentioned the Carmel forest fires. If the needs of the Israeli firefighters resonates with you, you'll see on your handout an organization known as Friends of Israel Firefighters that raises funds to buy badly needed equipment.

My point is this: It really doesn't matter what you support so long as you do support. Get engaged, become invested. This is not the time to stand on the sidelines. There's a Yiddish proverb that goes, "If you don't want to do something, one excuse is as good as another." In other words, if you're not doing something, what does it matter why?

It is traditional in an Israel Appeal to urge the purchase of Israel bonds, and today is no exception. Investment in State of Israel bonds has helped cultivate the desert, build transportation networks, create new industries, resettle immigrants, and increase export capability. It supports a nation of extraordinary innovation that pushes the boundaries of modern technology. Israel has never defaulted or missed a single payment of principal or interest. An easy way to purchase Israel bonds is to donate to the TBS Israel Bond Fund. When sufficient amounts are accumulated, the synagogue purchases another bond.

The bottom line is this: As American Jews, we must demonstrate a common front in the support of Israel. Golda Meir had it right: "To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be."

Be someone who supports Israel. Be someone knowledgeable about the issues Israel faces. Be someone who is willing to fight against the slander Israel faces daily. Be someone who responds to the media when you read something printed that portrays Israel in a false light. Be someone who visits Israel if you can. What I'm asking you today is to be.

I would be remiss if I failed to recognize June 25th as the fifth anniversary of the kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit who has been held captive and incommunicado by Hamas. We pray for his freedom.

In conclusion, the Rabbi has asked me to inform the congregation that throughout the coming year he will be holding informational sessions about advocating for Israel. The first session is set for November 6th. He and I hope you will join us.

I wish you, your families, and Israel peace in the coming year.

L'shana tovah.

Cartoon in The New Haven Register: Despicable and Incendiary

Editorial cartoons are supposed to be thought-provoking, but a responsible cartoonist does not mislead and does not promote hatred. Atlanta Journal-Constitution cartoonist Mike Luckovich did both in a hateful cartoon published in The New Haven Register September 26, 2011.


Ed Wood wrote the following letter about the cartoon to the Editorial Page Editor of The New Haven Register, Charles Kochakian ckochakian@journalregister.com.


The cartoon may be viewed at http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/files/2011/09/mike09232011.jpg.

Dear Mr. Kochakian:

Even though I have reached my letters limit for the year, I
promised to keep sending them on topics which show up on the op-ed page
that I believe require a response. Mike Luckovich's particularly nasty
and biased cartoon today fit that category.

In it he has Benjamin Netanyahu saying "I'm finally willing
to accept a two-state solution." He is pointing to a map indicating that
Wyoming and Nebraska are the two states in which he wants the
Palestinians to end up.

I know that a free press should allow many points of view,
so I hope to see another cartoon soon which might go something like
this:

"Mahmoud Abbas and the PA Finally Agree to a Peace Treaty" 

It could show Abbas signing the document while standing on
the beach of the Mediterranean with a whole fleet of payloaders pushing
all the Jews into the ocean.

HOW'S THAT FOR BALANCE?

Sincerely,
Edward Wood

Setting Stanley Heller Straight

After Stanley Heller's latest anti-Israel rant published in The New Haven Register, Ed Wood wrote the following letter to the editor. Heller is the leader of the Middle East Crisis Committee, a group with the singular goal of eliminating the world's only Jewish state, which happens to also be the only true democracy and America's only enduring friend in the Middle East.


Because The New Haven Register has a policy of not publishing more than four letters from a single individual in a year, Ed's letter wasn't published, but his message is worth reading.

Stanley Heller is, if nothing else, predictable. Again he laments the "unfairness" the Palestinians have experienced at the hand of Israel with a stubborn refusal to look at the facts. Here are some of them which he has ignored:

1) In return for decades of concessions, Israel has reaped only increasing scorn, contempt, and attacks from the Palestinians and their allies around the world.

2) When given the choice, the Palestinians chose Hamas to represent them whose goal to exterminate Israel has never changed.

3) The conflict between Israel, the Palestinians, and its Arab neighbors is very much a religious war, since their opponents adhere to a religion whose own Quran and teachings direct its followers to either convert, subjugate, or eliminate all those outside Islam. More and more these militant directives are being taken literally by Muslims, including the Palestinians.

4) A free society has no obligation to allow those very freedoms to be abused by those which would seek to destroy it. In fact it is obligated to protect itself and its citizens from this very thing.

5) By continuing their animosity toward Israel, the Palestinians have very much brought their present fate upon themselves.

To have peace ALL parties involved must truly be seeking it.

Unless the Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist, this will never come and all the U.N. declarations to impose peace will not be worth the paper they are printed upon.

Sincerely,
Edward Wood

Ecological Considerations in the War Against Israel

The following letter was submitted to The Hour (Norwalk, Connecticut) immediately after that newspaper published virtually the same later twice in eight days. Although The Hour publishes almost everything sent to it, this letter has not been published, even after it was resubmitted about two weeks later just in case it got lost in cyberspace.

To the Editor:

It's encouraging to learn that in these days of diminishing resources, The Hour has initiated the revolutionary concept of "content recycling." The letter, "Nervy of the letter writers to suggest editorial policy," by Lynn Carlton published August 15 was almost identical to the letter by the same writer, "Defending Scott Kimmich," published eight days earlier and also similar in message to the letter by Aletha Carlton, "Focus the conversation on what is happening now," published just four days earlier.

Each of these anti-Israel letters, like Scott's, also recycle false information and unsupportable opinions. The latter are acceptable but the former, such as the obviously false assertion "Israel has … separate license plates for people of a different faith," are not. The known truth is that Israel issues the same license plates for all its citizens, whether Jewish, Christian, Muslim or adherents of any of the other faiths who practice freely in Israel. These license plates of course differ from those issued by the Palestinian Authority, the corrupt governing body for almost all the Arabs in the disputed territories.

Interestingly, these anti-Israel writers completely ignore the apartheid policies of the Palestinian Authority, which go far beyond issuing different license plates based on religion. The Palestinian Authority insists that no Jews will live in its future state and  long ago made it a capital crime to even sell land to a Jew.

Those who claim to be interested in human rights should be protesting the racist policies of the Palestinian Authority and its refusal to even negotiate with Israel.

In terms of suggesting editorial policy to The Hour, I would not suggest it stop publishing the anti-Israel diatribes by Scott Kimmich and the two Carltons, but I would suggest it pay more attention to Article IV of the Statement of Principles of the American Society of News Editors, which reads: "Truth and Accuracy. Good faith with the reader is the foundation of good journalism. Every effort must be made to assure that the news content is accurate, free from bias and in context, and that all sides are presented fairly. Editorials, analytical articles and commentary should be held to the same standards of accuracy with respect to facts as news reports. Significant errors of fact, as well as errors of omission, should be corrected promptly and prominently."

In other words, I suggest The Hour exercise its responsibility to eliminate the false information that pervades those anti-Israel letters and issue its own, official corrections when it inadvertently publishes false information.

I recognize such a policy would create tremendous difficulty for the anti-Israel writers, since it is very hard to make a case against Israel while sticking to the truth, but unfortunately sometimes life can be fair. And the anti-Israel fanatics certainly have plenty of illogical arguments they can continue to recycle.

Alan Stein

Rasheed Screed Trilogy, August 2011, Part 3

I sent a letter to the New Haven Register in response to Rasheed's screed and The Register was good enough to publish it on August 16. There are, however, some interesting differences between the letter published and the letter submitted. We include both, followed by some comments.

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The Letter Published August 16

Questionable assertions about Gaza, civilian deaths

Jamilah Rasheed's Forum article, "Palestinians also struggle for freedom,"contains many questionable assertions.


Rasheed contradicts her assertion that the "Gaza Strip is an open air prison" with her acknowledgment that Gaza has an open border with Egypt.


Rasheed says Israel killed 1,417 civilians during Operation Cast Lead. This is blatantly false. Nobody knows how many Arabs in Gaza were killed and the number given by Rasheed is the highest estimate, including civilians and combatants, I've seen.


If one accepts Rasheed's inflated figure as the total, Hamas admitted that between 600 and 700 of those killed were combatants, so no more than 817 could have been civilians.


Most likely, the total number of casualties was below 1,200 and the number of civilians killed well under 500.


Alan Stein
Waterbury


Editor's note: Alan Stein is president of Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting-Connecticut.

---

The Letter Sent to the Editor


Dear Mr. Kochakian:


Jamilah Rasheed's August 9 Forum article, "Palestinians also struggle for freedom," contains many questionable assertions. Indeed, Rasheed herself contradicts her assertion that the "Gaza Strip is an open-air prison" with her acknowledgment two paragraphs below that Gaza has an open border with Egypt.


In the same paragraph as her assertion about Gaza being a prison, Rasheed falsely asserts Israel killed "1,417 civilians" during Operation Cast Lead. This is a blatantly false assertion which should not have been published and should be corrected by The New Haven Register.


Nobody really knows how many Arabs in Gaza were killed during Operation Cast Lead and the number given by Rasheed is the highest estimate of total casualties, both civilian and combatants, I've ever seen. Even if one accepts Rasheed's inflated figure as the total, even Hamas representatives ultimately admitted that between 600 and 700 of those killed were combatants, so that no more than 817 could possibly have been civilians.


Most likely, the total number of casualties was below 1,200 and the number of civilians killed well under 500. However, however generously one estimates the number of civilian casualties, Rasheed indisputably inflated the number of civilian casualties by at least 600.


While Rasheed's biased arguments are appropriately countered via letters to the editor, such a factual error calls for an official correction by The New Haven Register. Also, since Rasheed's Forum articles almost always contain blatant factual errors, we strongly urge you to carefully scrutinize future submissions from Jamilah Rasheed for factual accuracy.


Note: Two reliable sources, among many, for the Hamas admission are the Alan Dershowitz article "Finally, a Hamas Leader Admits That Israel Killed Mostly Combatants In Gaza," available at and the Jerusalem Post article "Civilian casualties, Gaza and the political war," available at .


Sincerely,


Alan Stein

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Comments


The original letter was sent directly to the editor, not to the address for letters for publication. It was clearly written as a request for The Register to issue its own, official correction of one of the factual errors in Rasheed's screed, not as a letter for publication. The Statement of Principles of the American Society of Newspaper Editors obligates newspapers to issue such corrections.


Instead of issuing that correction, The Register basically eliminated that portion of the letter and published it as if it was written for publication. It also eliminated the part where it was pointed out such false assertions should not be published in newspapers.

Rasheed Screed Trilogy, August 2011, Part 2

This letter was sent to the New Haven Register on August 9, the day Rasheed's screed was published. The writer was contacted by The Register, but as of August 17 the letter has not been published. It was submitted with the proposed title: "Bizarro world, parallel universe or just willingly ignorant?" along with an explanatory note to the editor, Charles Kochakian.


Note to Mr. Kochakian: I have probably exceeded my four per year limit on letter publication, but I think it is still important to send them in because I hope the "powers that be" at the Register will realize that there are probably a lot of us not at all fooled by Jamilah Rasheed, Stanley Heller, and the rest of the "Hate Israel - Hate America" crowd.


I understand why there has to be a limit to letter writers, but what irritates me is to not see it applied to someone like Rasheed who seems to have a much wider access to column space than the average Joe (or Josephine!), i.e. Faith Matters, Forum, and regular letters section.


Maybe you could look into this.


Nevertheless, do appreciate all the times you did feature my contributions and those of Neil Berro and Diana West, for example, who actually know what they're talking about!

---

The Letter Submitted

To the Editor:

I was and am a big sci-fi fan. When I was a kid, the top guy was Superman. Some of the comics feature a storyline based on a place called the Bizarro World where everything was reversed. Bad was good, good was bad, Superman, who was really a pretty sharp guy on our Earth, had a Bizarro version was probably the dullest pencil in the pencil box.

Star Trek featured an episode called Mirror, Mirror which featured an almost parallel universe but in which the benevolent Federation of Planets of our universe was brutal and warlike.

Lost in Space had an episode called "The Antimatter Man" in which John Robinson was captured and replaced by his evil opposite.

I'm wondering which of these places Jamilah Rasheed is getting her information because it certainly doesn't square with what I see anywhere in this universe on my planet.

She mentions in positive terms dictators being overthrown in the Middle East, which is good as far as it goes, but how often do thee places which lack a Judeo-Christian belief system invariably pick someone or something worse? Like Hamas, Hezbollah, or, in the case of Egypt a real possibility of the Muslim Brotherhood.

She mentions the plight of the Palestinians whose own choice of leadership is one of confrontation which will be satisfied only with the total destruction of Israel, something which they have proudly and publicly proclaimed - and then she can't seem to figure out that they are their own worst enemies.

Abetting them are the naive people who send "humanitarian aid" ships whose real goal is one of inciting confrontation in hopes of securing world sympathy when Israel has to take measures to protect itself.

One thing seems clear - either Rasheed and her like-minded proponents, or the rest of us have somehow materialized onto the wrong world or they are wishing to remain willingly ignorant of reality.

In either case, I hope they will open their eyes or perhaps Mr. Scott can either send us . . . or them . . . back home!

Sincerely,
Edward Wood

Rasheed Screed Trilogy, August 2011, Part 1

The New Haven Register regularly published op-eds written by Jamilah Rasheed , coordinator of the Connecticut Islamic Speakers Bureau. Rasheed ironically has the email address in4truth@comcast.net, ironic since so much of what she writes is of, at best, highly questionable veracity.

The Register published one of her op-eds, more accurately referred to as a Rasheed Screed, on August 9, 2011, with the title "Palestinians also struggle for freedom."

We post three entries relating to Rasheed's latest screed. This one contains quotes from her screed along with comments about each.

The second will contain a letter sent to The Register but, as of today, unpublished.

The third will also contain two versions of a letter sent to The Register, the published version and the original.

---

The Quotes and Comments

Re the title "Palestinians also struggle for freedom":

The Palestinian Arabs certainly have a strange way of "struggling for freedom."

They rejected "freedom" in 1947, when an Arab state was proposed by the United Nations through the Partition Plan. The Zionists agreed. The Arabs rejected it and launched a war instead.

They rejected "freedom" throughout the period 1948-1967 when the currently disputed territories were under Arab occupation and an independent Palestinian Arab state could have been established unilaterally.

They rejected "freedom" after the Six Day War when Israel offered to withdraw from all the captured territory in exchange for peace.

They rejected "freedom" in 1978, when the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt called for the negotiation of autonomy for the Arabs in the disputed territories by they refused to negotiate.

They rejected "freedom" in 2000, when they were offered a state in nearly all of the disputed territory, even including parts of Jerusalem, and they instead launched a brutal terror offensive.

They rejected "freedom" in 2008, when they were offered a state in the equivalent of all the disputed territory and they didn't even bother to respond.

They've rejected freedom for the last two and a half years, during which they've refused to even pretend to negotiate with Israel.

-----

Re "Sadly, the plight of Palestinians continues without intervention by the United States. ":

Au contraire, it would be a gross understatement to say the Obama Administration has given the self-induced and self-perpetuated plight of the Palestinian Arabs disproportionate attention. One might more reasonably argue that the Obama Administration has undermined the real interests of the Palestinian Arabs by being far too accommodating of their intransigence.

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Re: "The total disregard for the brutality that continues against a population of more than 1.7 million is appalling.":

One wonders to what population Rasheed is referring. According to Wikipedia, the Arab population in Judea and Samaria is roughly 2 1/2 million and the population of Gaza is just under 1.6 million.

One also wonders about what "brutality" Rasheed is referring, since all those Arabs in Gaza and roughly 95 percent of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria live under their own governments.

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Re: "The 60-year struggle of Palestinians has been encumbered by the failure of the Obama administration to deal firmly with the intransigence of the Israeli government."

The Israeli prime minister has repeatedly stated his willingness to agree to the establishment of another Palestinian Arab state and his willingness to make enormous concessions. He has made it clear he expects to give the Palestinian Arabs most of the disputed territory and even displace significant numbers of Israelis.

In contrast, Mahmoud Abbas, the so-called "moderate" leader of the Palestinian Authority, Fatah and the PLO, has insisted he will never make any concessions on the core issues and admitted peace would have been made long ago had he been willing to show any flexibility.

"I can't allow myself to make even one concession." (Al-Ayyam newspaper, September 7, 2010)

"If we showed flexibility on these issues the peace agreement would have been signed a long time ago." (October 15, 2010)

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Re "To live free in their place of birth is a dream deferred. Palestinians want to regain some semblance of their life before occupation.

Is Rasheed referring to their life before 1948, when Egypt occupied Gaza and Transjordan occupied Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem? She certainly can't be referring to their life between 1948 and 1967, since their lives improved dramatically when Israel took over the administration of the disputed territories. Unfortunately, things have basically gotten worse since the Palestinian Authority took over near the start of the failed Oslo Process.

Among many other sources, the article "What Occupation?" by Ephraim Karsh, available at and originally published by Commentary in 2002, details some of the vast improvements in the lives of the Arabs in the disputed territories in the aftermath of the 1967 war.

-----

Re " Their desires are no different from those any human being would want for themselves and their fellow citizens.":

Perhaps this is true for many, but they have certainly followed leaders who put far more importance on their desire to destroy Israel than on the welfare of their people.

-----

Re "According to statistics gathered by the website ifamericansknew.org,since Sept. 29, 2000, 6,430 Palestinians have been killed. Factored into this number is the attack on Gaza in December 2009 in which Israel bombarded Gaza for 23 days, killing 1,417 civilians.":

This is simply false. Even representatives of Hamas have conceded a large majority of those killed during Operation Cast Lead were not civilians but were fighters and operatives of Hamas and other terror groups. See "Finally, A Hamas Leader Admits That Israel Killed Mostly Combatants In Gaza," 

by Alan M. Dershowitz . See also .

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 Re "The Gaza Strip is an open-air prison where food and water are restricted and unemployment is at 40 percent.":

Gaza has an open border with Egypt. If Gaza is an "open-air prison," then Hamas is the jailor.

Israel certainly tries to control its border with Gaza. In this way it is no different from any other state, although most other states don't have a government pledged to its destruction on the other side, nor do they have missiles launched at their citizens on virtually a daily basis. Amazingly, Israel also transfers massive amounts of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, helping the very people attacking Israel. This is virtually unprecedented in human history.

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Re "Citizens of the world have to unite to free the people of Gaza and the West Bank from the debilitating assault on their humanity.":

To do that, they need to put pressure on the rulers of the Arabs in those areas, Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in Judea and Samaria, to treat their subjects like human beings.

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Re "The revolution in Egypt brought a glimmer of hope to the Palestinian plight. The new administration in Egypt has opened permanently its border with Gaza.":

Rasheed contradicts her own assertion about Gaza being an "open-air prison."

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Re "Organizations outside the occupied territories have been sending people into Gaza to assure Palestinians that they are not forgotten.":

Given the obsession of the United Nations with the Palestinian Arabs, there is no chance they are being forgotten. Unfortunately, international coddling of Arab rejectionism actually harms the Palestinian Arabs by encouraging their continued refusal to make peace.

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Re "In June, American activists organized a U.S. vessel named Audacity of Hope that was to join a flotilla assembled by activists who were gathering to challenge the illegal Israeli economic blockade of Gaza.":

Even the United Nations, hardly friendly to Israel, recognizes that Israel's blockade, preventing some heavy weapons from reaching terrorists in Gaza, is legal. See, for example, the Haaretz article "Gaza flotilla probe: IDF used excessive force but naval blockade legal"  .

Palestinians Stalling Mideast Peace Talks

Published in the Waterbury Republican-American Wednesday, August 3, 2011.

The July 28 article "Abbas wants mass rallies" omitted the context of its reference that "with peace talks stalled since 2008," Palestinian Arabs will ask the United Nations to recognize their "state."

Peace talks have been stalled since 2008 because Mahmoud Abbas walked out of the talks and, with the exception of a short, three-week interval, has been refusing to talk with Israel ever since. When one side refuses even to talk, it's difficult for the talks to be anything other than stalled.

The world should not let Abbas get away with his end run around negotiations, in violation of the solemn commitment made by the Palestinian Arabs and Israel to make no changes in the status of the disputed territories except through a negotiated agreement.

Time and again, Israel has made offers the Palestinian Arabs would have eagerly grasped had they any interest other than the destruction of Israel. We in America, and the rest of the world, need to stop rewarding Abbas for perpetuating a conflict he has admitted would have been resolved long ago had he been willing to show any flexibility.

Alan Stein
Waterbury

The writer is president of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting; www.primerct.org).