The Tripod - Editor
Issue:
11/17/03
Hostility Directed at Jewish
Sovereignty
To the
Editor:
In the last issue of the Tripod Eileen Flynn reported on the
critical reaction to an ad that juxtaposed a smiling Israeli and a Palestinian
suicide bomber. The Tripod missed the main story. The real story is not the ad,
which was indeed clumsy and which badly misjudged the intelligence of its
intended audience.
That said, the ad did raise some relevant issues:
Moslem anti-Semitism, the Arab refusal to recognize Israel as a legitimate state
and Palestinian support of terror.
At a recent conference of Moslem
nations, the Malaysian Prime Minister Mohathir Mohamed proclaimed that "the Jews
rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them." For that he
got a standing ovation from the assembled heads of state. The Arab media and
Arab school textbooks are full of the most vulgar and vicious hate propaganda
against Jews.
According to the Nov. 10 issue of the New Republic a poll
showed that 75 percent of Palestinians backed a recent suicide bombing of a
Haifa restaurant -- which was owned by Israeli Arabs and where six Arabs died
alongside 11 Jews. Another poll shows that 59 percent of Palestinians would back
terror against Israel even after the creation of a Palestinian state. All too
many Arabs refuse to accept Israel's right to exist in any borders. Therefore,
the ad is not totally wrong.
Of course there are Israeli racists and
Jewish extremists who have committed crimes against Palestinians. However, the
overwhelming majority of Israelis reject their actions.
Most Israelis
were ready to accept then Prime Minister Ehud Barak's September 2000 offer to
evacuate 95 percent of the occupied territories and to give the Palestinians a
capital in East Jerusalem. Had Arafat not betrayed the Israeli left by starting
the Intifada, Ariel Sharon would never have become Israel's Prime Minister.
Yasser Arafat answered Barak's offer of peace with a war of terror that
has cost Israel the equivalent, in relative demographic terms, of 13 9/11's.
Palestinians have chosen to rally around a corrupt leader who, according to last
week's edition of CBS's Sixty Minutes, may have diverted -- to his own private
bank accounts -- up to $800 million in foreign aid funds meant to assist the
Palestinian economy.
Until Palestinian society stops its support of the
intifada and Arafat, it will continue to pay a heavy price.
Reasonable
people understand that the Palestinians do have legitimate grievances in a
tragic conflict between two peoples over a small land that is less than the size
of Vermont. A two-state solution-largely along the lines of the September 2000
Camp David plan is still the most acceptable way of ending the conflict.
What is absolutely unacceptable, however, is any questioning of the
Jewish right to sovereignty, independence and self-determination.
Sincerely,
Dr. Samuel Kassow
Professor of History