Author:
As a disclaimer, I was not “planning” on writing this letter to the editor. This originally started as a simple acknowledgement of an error in the article published by Ben Dalgetty last week “Israel: The Homeland or War-Land?”
The error was “In 1998 Hamas published a charter and broke from the Muslim Brotherhood’s belief in non-violence. In 1993 they conducted their first suicide bombing.” This should stand out as a typo for obvious chronological problems. The charter was published on August 18, 1988. However, after reading the rest of the article, I am forced to question the logic presented.
I am shocked at the statement, “I do question whether Palestinians and those that advocate for an independent Palestine, recognize that it will be incredibly difficult to maintain and will require massive amounts of aid and infrastructural investment by the international community.” Just backing down and saying “We could make the world a better place, but that would require work and we’re lazy” is something I cannot believe in.
Furthermore, the U.S. Congressional Research Service reports that Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. aid since World War II, receiving $85 billion from 1949 to 1997. Since 1985, the U.S. has provided $3 billion annually to Israel in grants. In August 2007, the Bush Administration announced that over the next decade the U.S. would increase direct funding of the Israeli military by $6 billion, reaching a steady rate of $3.1 billion a year.
One of your comments is a perfect example of distorted perception of outgroup diversity, and it is frankly offensive. “For those that condemn Israel for attacking ‘innocent civilians’ in Gaza, remember that Palestinian citizens are the same people that voted into power an organization for whom one of the main goals is the destruction of Israel.” If a young Palestinian child is not an “innocent civilian”, then I don’t know who is. By the sentiment of your argument, we all deserve death at the hands of Iraqis due to the murders the Bush Administration has committed, regardless of whether we supported the war, voted in 2000 and 2004, or were American citizens at the time.
Just as Hamas has no right to kill innocent Israelis, the Israeli government has no right to kill innocent Palestinians. The hope that through murder “the lesson will actually be learned by Hamas this time” (note the infantilizing tone of a teacher-pupil relationship) is undoubtedly a false optimism. It perhaps even illustrates the “idealized bubble in which you live.” Modifying your argument, “As long as {the military of Israel} continues to believe they have the freedom to act with impunity, {Palestine} has an obligation to practice preemptive deterrence.”
Is this really what you want? This continual plague of vengeance has only two possible outcomes: RESOLUTION or TOTAL GENOCIDE. The former path is really only the “high road” with respect to the other fork which spirals in an endless cycle of destruction. In the future, which path would you be proud in saying you supported? Pride is not even the right word; it’s really more of an expectation. This is a letter to all of humanity, myself included: PLEASE RAISE THE MORAL STANDARDS OF YOUR ACTIONS.
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