Letters to the Editor
Portlander
Published Letters: 303 Editor's Choice: 13
-
AIPAC
[Read the article: The other Israel lobby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]AIPAC has one primary purpose: aid and abet Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinian and Syrian land. It is the arch opponent of peace. AIPAC's concept of peace is simple: you (Palestinians) spread your cheeks for us and we will stop murdering your children. jpincus, you are a pathetic example of someone who talks about peace but does his level best to ensure that it is impossible. The settlements are the problem, and, if they are not 100% removed, there can and should be no peace.
-
Barak
[Read the article: The other Israel lobby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Michaelm - Where do you get your ridiculous ideas. Barak did NOT offer the entire West Bank - he offered less than 90%. All existing large settlement blocks would remain and there would be additional ethnic cleansing in the Jordan Valley. Palestine would have been 4 discontiguous areas with Israeli settlements and military checkpoints in between. Israel would have controllwed all borders, airspace, water everything. The offer was pure apartheid. Get the facts before you open your mouth. Barak offered nothing
-
Thanks Gary
[Read the article: Victory, or Bushmills in the bunker]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"C'mon now all you big strong men, Uncle Sam's in trouble again. Got himself in a terrible jam, way down yonder in Vietnam. And it's one, two, three..."
Thank you, Gary. It was a treat.
-
Michaelm
[Read the article: The other Israel lobby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Denis Ross - please. Ross is an allout supporter of settlements. He has lied repeatedly about almost everything related to Israel. Clinton has never said what was offered. Please show reference. There were many Palestinians at that conference, not just Arafat. I stand by what I said. Evidence is everywhere, but you really want to believe pure BS. Apartheid is what is was, what it is today and what it will be tomorrow.
-
Jacswa
[Read the article: The other Israel lobby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glad you pointed that out, but no Americans will ever read an article by Uri Avnery in the American press
-
Yes, there are Arabs in the Knesset
[Read the article: The other Israel lobby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but the system is rigged so that Arabs can never get more than 10% ofg the Knesset even though Arabs are 20%+ of the population., Further, Israel has no constitution and there is no guarantee of equal rights. More to the point, Israel does NOT provide equal rights to its Arab citizens. Arabs are grossly discriminated against in every aspect of israeli lfe, and the government makes no attempt whatever to provide equal anything. Palestinian neighborhoods are allocated less than 1/4 of the electricity or water per household than Jews, Palestinian schools are not funded at all but Palestinians have to subsidize orthodox schools where Arabs are routinely described as vermin to exterminate - gee, sound familiar.
-
Brittain
[Read the article: The other Israel lobby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Who cares? I hold no book for Arab dictatorships, and, when we see an article about the scumbag leaders of Egypt, for example, I'll post my offense at that as well. BUT, my tax money is sent to a nation of rascist ethnic cleansers who claim to be morally superior but who aren't. If Israel is to be our friend and ally, then I expect it to behave like a civilized nation which it does not. Torture, mass murder and ethnic cleansing are not American values - although you wouldn't know it from the Bushies. Yes, I am angry that my country supports Baruch Goldstein worshiping filth.
Barak never offered to give up the settlement blocks. Anyone who claims that he did is a liar. Moreover, the proposal called for Maale Aduuin to be expanded cutting East Jerusalem off from the rest of the west Bank. I believe Saab Erekat any day before Denis 'I love ethnic cleansing' Ross.
-
Brittain II
[Read the article: The other Israel lobby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The Jews were ethnically cleansed from Arab countries. Same unmitigated evil that Israel is now perpetrating.
-
Dayenu
[Read the article: The other Israel lobby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ah, the old Likud canard: "disputed territories". Wrong, Occupied territories. Taken by preemptive military attack, maintained by brutal military force and fully subject to the Fourth Geneva Convention. Every Israeli settlement is a war crime, every Israeli settler is a war criminal.
As for ethnic cleansing, the Israelis have always been sort of half-hearted about it. The Irgun and Stern Gang conducted a pretty viscious campaign of terrorism against Arab civilians in 1947 to make sure that the new Israel was as Arabenrein as possible, but they neglected a bunch of people south of Jerusalem. After partition, Israel expelled another 50-60,000 at gunpoint and dynamited more than 350 villages, but still left quite a number of others. All of this, as bad as it was, was at least within the context of the legal Israel.
Everything since 1967 is pure filth. Ethnic cleansing is exactly the right term. The land is stolen, settlements are built on it where only Jews may live and the rightful owners are jailed, tortured and murdered if they complain or protest. Oh, and then they and their families are called terrorists. Talk about rewriting reality.
-
Bad
[Read the article: Cinema to savor]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Stephanie, what is wrong with you? Robert Altman made a lot of bad and mediocre movies, and A Prarie Home Companion is right there. Meryl Streep's performance was luminescent, but that's it. Also, how can you complain about 'quality' movies not being good and then not mention The Last King of Scotland which was very good?
-
How many atheists
[Read the article: Seeing the light -- of science]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are some Harvard studies, some work by the PEW trust and some others that seem to agree that 15% of the population identifies itself as secular. That is, people who would say their religious preference is None. These studies also found that about 5 poercentage points of this 15% were atheists - that is, people who claim not to believe in God. This would yield 45 million secular Americans with 15 million atheists.