Judging by your bias, especially in “Gaza hamlet stares at death” (Page 1, Feb. 19) and “The bankruptcy of ccupation” (Editorial, Feb. 14), I might as well be reading the Arab Press.
The Jawarnans’ concern about their homes and livelihoods pales by comparison to the fear that the Jews in Israel have to live with every moment of every day: that their lives, and those of their children, will be taken. The Arabs do not have to fear that Jews will bomb them at work; that their cars will be hit by bullets, rocks and Molotov cocktails on the roads; that terrorists will enter their homes and stab them as they sleep.
The West Bank and Gaza Strip, which your newspaper is so anxious to have liberated from the Israeli “occupiers,” are inhabited by both Arabs and Jews and have never been under Palestinian sovereignty. These lands came under Israeli control in a defensive war, when the surrounding Arabs–whose lands are so vast that Israel appears as a tiny dot in regional maps–tried to wipe the fledgling democracy off the map.
The Palestinians, as expressed in their official charter, want to do the same.
The Feb. 21 article states that Ariel Sharon’s election has made Israeli soldiers and settlers more arrogant. Is it arrogant to defend one’s very life?
As far as the restrictions on what Arabs can bring across army checkpoints: Even Red Crescent ambulances, which had never been stopped for security searches, recently were found to be transporting bomb parts, guns and ammunition. It is no wonder the Israelis must be cautious.
You wrote about Israeli leftists and doves. Why was a hawkish and historically unpopular politician elected prime minister by an overwhelming majority of Israeli voters (who include both Arabs and Jews, by the way)? Since the beginning of the first intifada, there have been deep political rifts between Israeli Jews who believed that giving the Palestinian Arabs sovereignty would lead to peace, and those who did not. After giving the Arabs autonomy and weapons, and finding that they continued to try to wipe Israel off the map–now with Israeli weapons–many Israelis continued to believe that peace could be achieved. But when Prime Minister Ehud Barak made offers that exceeded most Israelis’ red lines, and Arab violence escalated rather than abated, the majority of Israelis realized that there is no partner for peace.
