And Now for the Letters on the Rock Throwing Hobby Story

You were waiting for the letters in a follow-up to the Jodi Rodern "rock throwing hobby" piece, right?

Here they are:

Rock Throwing in the West Bank: A ‘Rite of Passage’?

Published: August 5, 2013

To the Editor:

Re “ ‘My Hobby Is Throwing Stones’: In a West Bank Culture of Conflict, Boys Wield the Weapon at Hand” (front page, Aug. 5):

Stones are a lethal weapon, and stone throwers engage in what can be premeditated murder. My perspective is that of a social worker who worked for 20 years with youths with violent tendencies. What violent youths seek, more than anything else, are people who will reinforce their tendency to violence. This article will be posted in Palestinian youth clubs as a badge of encouragement for Palestinian youths and as an incentive to continue their efforts to murder people on the roads. That is a tragedy.

I cannot fathom how and why The New York Times can describe the stoning of people on the roads as a “rite of passage.”

DAVID BEDEIN
Jerusalem, Aug. 5, 2013
The writer is director of the Israel Resource News Agency.
  
To the Editor:

Having personally been the uniformed target, during the first intifada, of Molotov cocktails and many, many stones, one of which produced a lifetime annuity for my dentist, I know that these clashes are hardly a game for either side.

As peace talks resume, reversing the poisonous effects of the “culture of conflict” is as important as any land compromises in achieving lasting peace.

DANIEL WOLF
Teaneck, N.J., Aug. 5, 2013
 
To the Editor:

Thank you for the excellent reporting and photography.

As someone who escaped the Holocaust as a child and who saw the conditions in the Palestinian territories more than 20 years ago, I think that it’s way past time to let American Jews especially know what is really going on there.

YVONNE BYRON
Oakland, Calif., Aug. 5, 2013
 

Does Ms. Byron (a progressive) get paid to make Nazi comparisons, subliminally?  Did she attend a workshop on this methodology?

From a previous missive of her's:

...the constant indignities suffered by the poor Palestinian farmers there.  The settlements are huge, modern enclaves on the hillsides, that could just as easily be in Los Angeles County. Their swimming pools use water that has been diverted from the poor farmers down below. Bypass roads for Jewish settlers only have uprooted treasured ancient olive trees.

These religious extremist settlers, many of whom seem to be former American citizens, feel that they have a pipeline to God, who dictates that they settle these lands. How can one argue with them?

Jimmy Carter, who took the chance of being labeled an anti-Semite, which he decidedly is not, has documented all this very well in his book "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid."

It is in everyone's interest, including Israel's, that the truth be told.
 

How can anyone argue with here?!

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