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Letters to the Editor: Reactions to column about Middle East conflict
Issue date: 4/10/09 Section: Commentary
Why is Ali Mirza writing a letter of protest ("U.S. should not support Israelis in Palestine-Israel conflict," April 6) to us when the real enemy of the Palestinians are the 22 countries of the Arab League?
Despite their huge collective oil and land wealth, these rich Arab countries offer nothing except incitement to their impoverished Arab cousins, many of whom remain in refugee camps 60 years after the first Israel war. He should write letters of protest to the Arab press.
Israel has resettled 1 million Jewish refugees from these same countries. At the same time, over 1 million Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more rights than any other Arabs in the Middle East.
Israel left Gaza years ago and was forced to return after being bombarded with 2,000 rockets over two years! What did you expect? When you vote into office a gang of terrorists who promise warfare, you invite your own fate.
Gaza shares a border with Egypt. Why not send a letter to the Egyptian press to open up the border?
Frankly, I am fed up with the whining of Palestinian apologists who write letters like lawyers while their clients act like terrorists. When you shoot rockets into any country the reaction will always be horrific.
Americans are not sympathetic to those elements that choose to suicide bomb, behead, stone women to death, kill rivals, bomb mosques, issue fatwas, waste time by burning flags, organize parades that teach their children to hate, etc. And then cry to American readers that we are not sympathetic to them.
It has been said that when the Arabs learn to love their children more than they hate Israel, there will be peace in the Middle East. Mr. Mirza, you are writing to the wrong constituency.
- Steve Laitman
Westport
In the Monday, April 6, newspaper, the Commentary section featured a piece on freeing Palestine ("U.S. should not support Israelis in Palestine-Israel conflict").
I'm not going to get into how many things are wrong with the piece (misinformation, taboo and inflammatory word choices, ignorance regarding the essence of war and conflict, etc.), and it is indeed the author's opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt as such (and I would say this for anything pro-Israel, anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian or anti-Palestinian). My beef with your newspaper - and this comes from the perspective of someone who worked for four years at a Student Pulitzer-prize winning newspaper in the Midwest - is that it was an irresponsible op-ed choice. Issues as divisive as those in the Middle East demand a dual op-ed where you have two opinion pieces, one from each side of the line.
Despite their huge collective oil and land wealth, these rich Arab countries offer nothing except incitement to their impoverished Arab cousins, many of whom remain in refugee camps 60 years after the first Israel war. He should write letters of protest to the Arab press.
Israel has resettled 1 million Jewish refugees from these same countries. At the same time, over 1 million Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more rights than any other Arabs in the Middle East.
Israel left Gaza years ago and was forced to return after being bombarded with 2,000 rockets over two years! What did you expect? When you vote into office a gang of terrorists who promise warfare, you invite your own fate.
Gaza shares a border with Egypt. Why not send a letter to the Egyptian press to open up the border?
Frankly, I am fed up with the whining of Palestinian apologists who write letters like lawyers while their clients act like terrorists. When you shoot rockets into any country the reaction will always be horrific.
Americans are not sympathetic to those elements that choose to suicide bomb, behead, stone women to death, kill rivals, bomb mosques, issue fatwas, waste time by burning flags, organize parades that teach their children to hate, etc. And then cry to American readers that we are not sympathetic to them.
It has been said that when the Arabs learn to love their children more than they hate Israel, there will be peace in the Middle East. Mr. Mirza, you are writing to the wrong constituency.
- Steve Laitman
Westport
In the Monday, April 6, newspaper, the Commentary section featured a piece on freeing Palestine ("U.S. should not support Israelis in Palestine-Israel conflict").
I'm not going to get into how many things are wrong with the piece (misinformation, taboo and inflammatory word choices, ignorance regarding the essence of war and conflict, etc.), and it is indeed the author's opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt as such (and I would say this for anything pro-Israel, anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian or anti-Palestinian). My beef with your newspaper - and this comes from the perspective of someone who worked for four years at a Student Pulitzer-prize winning newspaper in the Midwest - is that it was an irresponsible op-ed choice. Issues as divisive as those in the Middle East demand a dual op-ed where you have two opinion pieces, one from each side of the line.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Reader X
posted 4/10/09 @ 3:50 PM EST
To Mr. Laitman,
Your statement that the Arab League doesn't help the state of Palestine is more or less false. "Despite their huge collective oil and land wealth, these rich Arab countries offer nothing except incitement to their impoverished Arab cousins, many of whom remain in refugee camps 60 years after the first Israel war. (Continued…)
Editrix.
posted 4/14/09 @ 1:57 AM EST
I can't believe you guys don't even edit your letters for proper spelling and grammar. What kind of newspaper are you running!?
In the second letter, yeah, "reign" should be "rein. (Continued…)
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