Read other letters about this article
Talking of Israel and the debates and the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, I am appalled by the unconditional support the US gives Israel. As neither a Jew or a Muslim, I am a plain human being with human values; I cannot understand how there can be peace in the Middle East if the US candidate doesn't even mention the Palestinians in the picture. Israel continues to this day to break all UN resolutions towards peace. Why is Israel and it's ally the US not accountable for this? Please read John Pilger's essay 'The Last Taboo' in his book Freedom Next Time. Here is an excerpt:
Rami Elhanan Story ( Rami and Nurit lost their daughter, Smadar). They are among the founders of the Parents’ Circle – which brings together Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost loved ones, including families of suicide bombers. They jointly organize educational campaigns and lobby politicians to begin serious negotiations.
“Our aim is not to forget or forgive the past, but to find some way of living together.”
J.P. What do you say to Jews in other countries, like Britain and the US: people who support Israel because they feel they must?
“I say they should be loyal to real Jewish values and support the peace movement in Israel, not the state at all costs. It’s only pressure from the outside – from Jews, from governments, from media, from public opinion – that will end this nightmare. While there is silence, this looking away, this
profane abuse of our critics as anti-Jew, we are no different from those who stood aside during the days of the Holocaust in Germany. We are not only complicit in a crime, we ensure that we ourselves never know peace and our surviving children never know peace. I ask you: does that make sense?”
Story of Yitzhak Frankenthal’s Story
Chairman of Parents’ Circle
(His address at a peace rally in Jerusalem)
“Let all the self-righteous who speak of the ruthless Palestinian murderers take a hard look in the mirror.
Let them ask themselves what they would have done had they been the ones living under occupation. I can say for myself that I, Yitzhak Frankenthal, would have undoubtedly become a freedom fighter and I would have killed as many on the other side as I possibly could. It is this depraved hyocracy that pushes the Palestinians to fight us relentlessly – our double standard that allows us to boast the highest military ethics, while the same military slays innocent children….As much as I would like to do so, I cannot say the Palestinians are to blame for my son’s death. That would be the easy way out. It is we who are inwilling to make peace with them. It is we who insist on maintaining our control over them. It is we who feed the cycle of violence…I regret to say it.”
Thank you for your platform of freedom of expression.