Letter to the Editorial Editor of the Ottawa Citizen
Regarding your editorial, “A Terrible Shame”, page B6 of the Saturday Observer of Jan 10th, 2009.
Dear Sirs,
Your editorial “A Terrible Shame” reads well but seems to tell only one side of the story, despite extending a literary olive branch to Arabic culture. You neglect to mention that the Arabs too were dispossessed, when the lion’s share of Palestine was ‘given’ to the Jews by the British for the creation of a Jewish state, despite its predominantly Arabic demography. Also, I dispute your unsupported claim that Israel, “as a western society (…) has always expected that peace will be achieved through negotiation and compromise.” Israeli policy surely refutes this statement if you consider; their blockade of Gaza (a de facto act of war), the dividing walls nearing completion in the West Bank, or the military strikes they routinely carry out against anxious neighbors with F-16 fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships. The record of ‘western societies’ in seeking peaceful resolutions includes the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Rwanda, Bosnia, and the Iraq wars. Perhaps you understand these events as examples of ‘negotiation and compromise’. What I (and Red Cross, and Medicines Sans Frontiers) see compromised in the Gaza Strip is innocent human life, the significance of which does not seem to rank well against the all-important rocket attacks on whose account, apparently, the civilians of Gaza may blame themselves for their casualties.
Sincerely, Benjamin J. Oomen B.A. Liberal Arts
229 Argyle Ave. Apt 1106
Ottawa, ON. K2P 2J1
Home: 613 234 9203
Cell: 613 883 1385
P.S. Although I would love to see this in print, I do not really expect it to be published. That is because newspapers and other media outlets in our ‘western society’ seem to consider it taboo to consider seriously any guilt or wrongdoing on the part of the state of Israel. One has only to recall how Michael Ignatieff was lambasted for days after merely suggesting that Lebanon AND Israel were both guilty or war crimes. A suggestion which has proved, of course, to be true. Anti-semitism is no good, but it is possible to take Zionism to far.
