Middle East Peace Notes

Israel–Palestine Conflict

Archive for February, 2012

Problem or solution?

Posted by middleeast on 28th February 2012

Wed, Feb 29, 2012   6 Adar, 5772
Problem or solution?
Sir, – Martin Sherman (“Something to worry about,” Into the Fray, February 24) believes that “all the assumptions on which Israeli policies [of peacemaking and withdrawals] were founded have proved groundless” – as if occupation actually helps security.

Instead, it has generated problems, including Hamas (which Israel strengthened to oppose the PLO in the territories), Hezbollah (which arose out of Israel’s first invasion of Lebanon), demographics, intifadas, territorial segregation, isolation, new enemies like Iran, and settlements, the absence of which could have brought withdrawal, peace,and security.

As part of the problem rather than the solution, Sherman prefers to mock Israel’s leading citizens, from Lt.-Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi to Amos Oz. It’s no surprise that David Ben-Gurion is turning over in his grave from an occupation so destructive to the land he loved.

JAMES ADLER
Cambridge, Massachusetts


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Explaining itself

Posted by middleeast on 13th February 2012

Thu, Feb 2, 2012   9 Shevat, 5772
Explaining itself

Sir, – With regard to letter writers Sydney L. Kasten and Efraim A. Cohen (“‘Hasbara,’ and how!,” January 30), Kasten seems to think that digging up one article from a whole halfyear after the Six Day War, from a single newspaper in just one country, can undermine the universally known fact that Israel enjoyed astronomically-high Western popularity before the occupation of the West Bank and the settlement expansionism there.

Cohen, in saying that all countries use public diplomacy, blurs the meaning. He makes no distinction between the normal promotion of a country’s policies, which Israel used to do so successfully, and the two sad types of public diplomacy Israel uses today – explaining its right to conquer another land and people, and railing against the Western delegitimization (with which I disagree) that has come about as a tragic consequence.

JAMES ADLER

 

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