Great Letter on Pal. "Nonviolence"

In the NYTimes:

To the Editor:

Re “Palestinians Try a Less Violent Path to Resistance” (front page, April 7):

Your article about Palestinians’ embrace of Gandhian tactics was interesting and hopeful, yet naïve.

While I have no doubt that there may be good and well-intentioned Palestinians embracing the philosophy of Mohandas K. Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr., let us remember that Hamas and Hezbollah have as stated goals the violent destruction of the Jewish state.

We should also remember that in the 1940s the Muslim League in India was the major opponent of Gandhian tactics and Gandhi’s dream of a united India where Muslims and Hindus lived together in peace and harmony. I fear that the same philosophical roots behind the Muslim League then are active in the Palestinian leadership today.

Portraying the small movement of Palestinians who support Gandhian tactics on the front page of The New York Times was inflating the significance of the movement.

Joel H. Siegal
San Francisco