Nice Letter, Sam

Sam Heilman was a grade above me in university.

Here's his letter-to-the-editor in today's NYTimes:-

To the Editor:

Re “The Two-State Solution Doesn’t Solve Anything,” Op-Ed, Aug. 11):

Hussein Agha and Robert Malley demonstrate clearly and unequivocally why peace between Israel and the Arab world remains as elusive today as it was on November 29, 1947, the day the United Nations in Resolution 181 declared that “Independent Arab and Jewish States ... shall come into existence in Palestine.”

If in the face of 61 years of the existence of Israel, which today is home to roughly 40 percent of the world’s Jews, Mr. Agha and Mr. Malley can argue that the definition of Israel as the Jewish state is still an open question, then the likelihood of a resolution of the conflict is as small as it’s ever been.

Who can blame the Jewish people and citizens of Israel for their insecurity? The world that stood by as a third of the Jewish population — six million — was murdered still questions the right of those who survived and their offspring to define their ancestral homeland as the state of the Jews.

Samuel Heilman, New York

The writer is a professor of sociology at Queens College.