Today's mailbag of truth and sanity:
Israelis are not the only ones who support the war on Hamas. Many people of good will support Israel’s right to self-defense.
Despite your coverage of Hamas’s callous use of its own civilians as human shields and other violations of the rules of warfare, people readily apologize for a terrorist organization that seeks to maximize civilian deaths. If Hamas had its way and Israel hadn’t been under rocket and mortar attack for years and thus forced to prepare bunkers and warning systems, there would certainly be more Israeli deaths.
If Hamas had taken advantage of Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza and focused on state building rather than on pursuing its agenda of destroying Israel, Gaza could be flourishing and Israel would certainly not be there.
War is ugly, but the alternative for Israel, as it would be for any country under constant attack, is intolerable.
Aliza Craimer Elias
San Francisco, Jan.
13, 2009
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To the Editor:
Reflex-like censure of Israel by people of good will does not bring peace any closer in the Middle East.
Israel withdrew from Lebanon and was condemned by the global community when it responded to unprovoked attack by Hezbollah in 2006. Israel withdrew from Gaza and is once again condemned for its response to continuing missile attacks on its communities. This global condemnation only emboldens Hamas, and it only shows Israelis what to expect if they withdraw from the West Bank so that those unprovoked missiles could reach Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion Airport.
Israelis would have to be fools to accept the assurances of such peace-loving critics that the risks they take for peace will be rewarded by the unfettered right to defend itself if its trust should again be breached.
Rafael Harpaz
Atlanta, Jan.
13, 2009
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To the Editor:
Israelis strongly support the attack on Gaza because they view the war as just retaliation for years of missile attacks. In this, Israelis have something in common with Gazan Palestinians: each group justifies military action against the other because of perceived injustices perpetrated by the other.
The situation illustrates exactly why a two-state solution will never bring peace to the region. What is to stop angry Palestinians from launching rockets against Israel? And what is to stop angry Israelis from retaliating just as they are doing now, guaranteeing a perpetual cycle of violence?
Rocket attacks against faceless civilians, and devastating military action against a neighbor, are possible only because each group is able to classify the other as precisely that: “other” and therefore subhuman.
The solution is obvious, even if it is difficult for some to imagine: Jews and Arabs need to live side by side and interact with one another as equal human beings every day.
I hope that President-elect Barack Obama will extend his eloquent advocacy of understanding and reconciliation among Americans of different racial backgrounds to advocacy of a one-state solution in Israel/Palestine, with equal justice for all its citizens.
Saleem Nicola
Harrison, N.Y., Jan.
13, 2009
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To the Editor:
Three related elements define Israel’s self-identity: being a Jewish state; being a people victimized in the Holocaust; and, being small, actually, tiny in comparison to the Arab world around it. This is the fabric from which each Israeli Jew is made.
This is the Jewish reality: If Israel did not have a powerful army, it would have no army, and no country, at all. And yet, much of world sees a very different reality — a gulf that might be unbridgeable.
Tom Rockland
West Hartford, Conn., Jan. 13, 2009
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To the Editor:
In exercising self-defense against aggression, to determine whether it is proportionate under international law, one balances the force actually used against the force reasonably needed to stop the aggression.
With Hamas placing many Israelis under threat of death for years by missile or mortar fire, the force Israel has used is indeed proportionate — we are still waiting for the rocket fire to end.
Wallace Edward Brand
Alexandria, Va., Jan.
13, 2009
And then, there was this one:
To the Editor:
As Americans we cannot allow the humanitarian crisis in Gaza to continue. More than 900 Palestinians killed, about 3,600 injured. The death of children and mothers and the Gaza blockade lack any moral justification and humanity.
As God-fearing Americans, we cannot sit still and continue being silent when our taxpayer dollars are financing a war that is causing the death of innocent civilians and is destroying places of worship and education.
As a Muslim Palestinian-American, I believe that all people are endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights. We are citizens of a morally just country who believe in those rights; and once we Americans accept the loss of those rights for anyone, we risk losing them for ourselves.
We cannot allow the world to believe that we do not value life. A Palestinian’s life is equal to and as valuable as any other life.
Hala Hijazi
San Francisco, Jan. 13, 2009
hkhijazi@yahoo.com
hala.hijazi@sfgov.org
Hala, if "A Palestinian’s life is equal to and as valuable as any other life", why are there so many suicide bombers - men, women and teenagers - killing Jews in restaurants and buses?
Hala, by the way, works (or worked) as the City and County of San Francisco's Project Director overseeing the rehabilitation and the terms for the reuse of the Old Mint Building, a National Historic Landmark. Until January 8, 2004, Hala had worked for former Mayor Willie Brown's Office of Economic Development specializing in marketing, small business retention, and project management for 7 years. Hala also received The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's nomination for the 2004 Woman of the Year to advance research.
She's a member of the Bill Clinton Foundation.
Just recently, she was involved in this project:
Feed the Children
The Willie Brown Institute
The National Basketball Players Association (Houston Rockets’ and Oakland Warriors’ Players)
Port of San Francisco | San Francisco Fire Department And Local Community Partners
To Volunteer For…
“MIRACLE AT PIER 48”
FEEDING 5000 FAMILIES
Thursday, December 11, 2008
9:00AM-5:00PM
Pier 48
Sheds A, C, and Valley
San Francisco, California
and she's in this video clip from last July.
Such a humanitarian.
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