Letters to the Editor
Portlander
Published Letters: 303 Editor's Choice: 13
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Sabra and Shatila
[Read the article: The showdown]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ah Jeffrey, the Goebbels approach to argument: tell a big lie, tell it often and hope the world eventually accepts it as fact.
Israel had total control of all access to Sabra and Shatila. Also, from its positions in the hills, Israeli soldiers could look down into the camps. Israel let the Phalange in, watched them murder a 1000 or so, fed the killers lunch when they took a break, watched them kill another 1000 or so and then let them go. Deliberate mass murder planned and executed by Israel through its surrogate.
Just because the Nazis had the Latvians kill most of the German Jews shipped to Riga doesn't mean that the Nazis weren't responsible. Same thing.
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Not Nazis
[Read the article: The showdown]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cardshark-
No, the Israelis are not Nazis. They have not undertaken the genocidal extermination of an entire people like the Nazis. One could argue that Stalin, the Khmer Rouge, the Hutus in Rwanda and others are like the Nazis but not Israelis by any objective standard.
OTOH, the Israelis do engage, routinely and systematically in Nazi practices. Dispossession and settlement of occupied territory are war crimes criminalized in the Fourth Geneva Convention because they were Nazi practices. Every Israeli settlement is a war crime and every Israeli settler is a war criminal. Israel is the premier ethnic cleanser on the planet today.
Then, there is routine and systematic torture, colective punishment (also a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention) and others.
Unless and until the supporters of Israel address the issue of ethnic cleansing, we will no have no basis for rational discussion.
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Ethnic Cleansing
[Read the article: The showdown]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Jeffrey, you are pathetic. Lots of accurate examples of mass murder, but none of them are dispossesion and settlement of occupied territory. Today, that is uniquely an Israeli practice.
Also, the territory is occupied not disputed. Even if it were disputed, Israel is not party to the dispute - the borders of Israel were established in 1947 - that is the only legal Israel.
BTW, be very careful who you call a Jew hater. Trust me, I do not hate myself.
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Pathetic
[Read the article: The showdown]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Jeffrey-
Not only are you pathetic, you also apparently cannot read and you are totally ignorant of history.
In no post did I say Israeli ethnic cleansing was worse than the litany of other atrocities you mentioned. Israel is the premier ethnic cleanser on the planet. That is demonstable empirically, and I stand by that. Is it worse than the Sudanese murderers? Clearly not. But people like you want to absolve Israel of all guilt by stating that they're not as bad as someone else. War crimes are war crimes, and the perpetrators need to be brought to justice, including Israeli settlers. It is also typical of Israel's supporters to call everyone who criticizes Israel an anti-semite. Stop being a professional victim Jeffrey and see the world as it is not as you wish it were.
Finally, the 1967 war was NOT a defensive war. Israel struck first. Would Egypt and Syria have attacked - maybe, maybe even probably, but they didn't. There was no evidence that Jordan was preparing to attack, but Israel invaded them anyway. Also, Israel did colonize Egypt and Jordan. During the 73 war (a just war since Israel was occupying Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian land), Israel took the Sinai after the U.S. intervened on the wrong side and built settlements there. The West Bank was Jordanian territory.
I was a strong supporter of Israel until it built the first settlement. That moment was the end of self-defense and the beginning of Israeli fascist imperialism.
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Ah, Xanthro
[Read the article: Negotiating the peace]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As always, you make one valid point and then screw it up completely by pro-Israeli BS.
1) You are correct, Lebanon has no claim to the Shebaa Farms area, and Hizbollah uses it as a 'reg herring' to pursue other objectives.
2) Your analogy about the mugger and your wallet is BS. It is not Israel's wallet. The entire world, including the United States, recognizes the Shebaa Farms area as Syrian territory. Israel has no right to be there at all whether or not it is Lebanese territory.
3) When every Israeli soldier who participated in the shelling of Quatan or enabled the massacres at Sabra and Chatilla is jailed for mass murder, then I will agree with you regarding not releasing ALL Lebanese prisoners. Israelis have deliberately murdered at least as many Lebanese that have ever harmed an Israeli.
You either want a real peace or you don't. You don't - you have made that clear in many posts on this conflict. All I see is shilling for Israeli ethnic cleansing, torture and other atrocities. I detest your views - you might be quite nice personally - but I detest your views.
We need a 'state for Jews' as Herzl said, but not this Israel. Jews of all people should know better than this. Israel keeps walking toward the place where it becomes the thing that put us in the camps. It is not there by any means, but it moving in that direction.
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Back to the Article
[Read the article: Negotiating the peace]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I believe that a solution of some kind will be crafted between Lebanon and Israel within a few weeks. I believe, however, that the Israeli/Palestinian/Syrian conflict is completely intractable. Israel will never give up Palestinian and Syrian land and water. The Palestinians will never give up their 'right of return' thing. Syria will never agree to demilitarize the Golan Heights if Isreal did give them back. Ergo, no peace. Not in my lifetime.
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Ah Jeffrey
[Read the article: The "hiding among civilians" myth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Same old lying, ignorant crap. Apologist for ethnic cleansing, torture and mass murder. Israel is the premier ethnic cleanser on the planet - in fact, it is the only ethnic cleanser on the planet today. You call anyone who disagrees with you anti-semitic, even Jews.
The Israelis are not Nazis, but, if you wish for people to stop calling them Nazis, tell your Israeli buds to stop engaging in Nazi practices - dispossession and settlement of occupied territory, collective punishment, etc. All of these things that Israel does were criminalized in the Fourth Geneva Convention because they were Nazi practices. Lebabnon is just Israel's Lidice.