Letters to the Editor
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OMFG! Rebecca Read the FRONT PAGE
RT, welcome to the big time. If you can continue resisting reading and reporting on the Style Section, this blog will benefit.
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Racism
So, Rebecca, it's OK for Israeli women to ethnically cleanse Palestinian land, steal Palestinian water, steal and destroy Palestinian crops and murder Palestinian children, but it's not OK for Palestinian women to resist. You disgusting racist.
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Apples to Apples, please
Not that Rebecca needs defending but I do not believe that there was any racist intent on her part. I read her comment to mean it's too bad that women too will be officially participating in the violence (Rebecca feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.) That being said, Palestine--a state not recognize as a state by the UN--does not have a formally recognized army, which in turn allows the violence they perpetrate on Israel to be viewed as acts of terrorism (rather than acts of war) and therefore deemed unjustifiable. However, I frequently see that Israel, who is technically committing acts of war on an army-less "state", is lauded for treating all men and women as equals when it comes time for them to fulfill their obligations for military service. I don't agree with the violence perpetrated by Israel or Palestine but when discussing the this conflict, it's important to make a concerted effort to compare apples to apples. So, in a way, with this new "feminist military branch", Palestine is making strides as it recognizes women to be just as valuable as men, even if some of us may disagree with the realm in which they are recognized as equals.
For the record--I believe neither side is right but that it's a very very complicated situation and neither Israel nor Palestine/Hamas is in an enviable position.
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RT
KRD-
I don't really disagree with you. I reject the notion that Palestinians killing Israelis is terrorism, but it is certainly murder and doesn't lead to peace. BUT, RT's story is inherently racist. What other choices do Palestinian women have? They can resist or they can roll over and spread their cheeks for Israeli occupation filth. Why is it OK for Israeli settler women to make their choices? I believe that RT is an all-out supporter of Israel and doesn't even realize that her article is racist - but it is.
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Damn
You folks are getting pretty bitchy in the letters section. Rebecca didn't say anything about violence perpetrated by Israelis as being okay. Where the hell did you read that? Or are you trying to make a joke of some kind by over-reacting? If so, you need to work on your satire a little bit. Ideally, it should have some basis in fact.
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krd
Hi KRD - the reason that Rebecca is not racist regarding this post, is because suicide bombing - as much as DZ is too seemingly hate-filled to admit, has nothing to do with resistence, and is absolutely terrorism. It be one thing if these female suicide bombers went after military targets - who can be against that, but this resistence has been against bus riders, diners, commuters - the very target of terrorism. That the Palestinians decree every Israeli a legitimate target (because they all eventaully serve in the military), is mere intellectual pablum meant to balm the unhealable: these bombers are not soldiers, they are criminals and apostates, and they serve only to harden the heart of their occupiers and their supporters - particularly those in Israel. Since the days of Yasir Arafat and the Olympic massacre of '72, the Palestinains have played a card that always ends with more dead Palestinians - either by hiding weapons in schools (it's great press when Israel kills children) to attacking on high Holidays - these are not fighters of honor, and the world sees that. This does not mitigate the suffering of the Palestinians, but their leadership - and that of the surrounding Arab countries, has always been geared to the highest Palestinian body count possible, and as much as Israel is to blame (though the UN should really get that lump of coal), the Arabs, and Palestinian leadership in particular, have been horrendous...
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The originators of modern suicide bombings, the tamil tigers have always been coed
and secular too, by the way.
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Terrorism
Jeffrey-
Hate filled? You don't know anything about me. The day you hold a single standard for terrorism, I will stop writing. If you're willing to declare all Israeli settlers as terrorists, then I'm willing to agree that these suicide bombers in the making are terrorists. If not, then you are stuck with your classic double standard. Dispossession and settlement of occupied terrotory are war crimes - check out the Fourth Geneva Convention. BTW, I guess you would agree that the French Resistance were also terrorists since they killed thousands of German civilians.
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yikes!
When I first read this article I also wondered if Rebecca would consider members of the French Resistance terrorists. If Brooklyn is invaded by a foreign army and I decide to fight back, in whatever way I can, am I a terrorist or am I part of a resistance and a woman to be admired? It seems like the winners get away with whatever they want and the losers get labeled terrorists. Not that I want to defend anyone who straps a bomb on their person and steps on a crowded bus – but condemning one group while ignoring (or maybe just taking for granted?) the circumstances that lead to this mess seems unfair.
I’m sure Rebecca is not a raciest – and yet this little blurb did make me uncomfortable.
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At last
A short article condemning the actions of the terrorist movement within Palestine, without a misguided attempt at "balancing" this barbaric practice with an anti-Israel screed! Right on, Rebecca!
Now we can see the true colors of the supporters of terrorism in the letter writers section. Rebecca did nothing to condone any Israeli actions, she merely declaimed the practice of suicide bombing in the name of "feminism". Already she has been called a racist for it.
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Does this bomb make my ass look fat?
Because I couldn't make my Manolo Blahnik's explode.
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Yes, because it's really a feminist advancement for women to blow themselves up
and take other women and other women's children with them. Gloria Steinem would be so proud.
Seriously, how is it racist to deplore another group of people joining the ranks of suicide bombers? Is anyone really in favor of suicide bombing? Like you think it's a great thing and everyone should get the chance to join in? What about little kids? If it's so great, shouldn't little kids be strapping themselves into some explosives and killing other little kids?