A couple weeks back I said that no American newspaper would print a piece by the great Henry Siegman, the former American Jewish Congress president who has become outspoken on the need for Israel to deal fairly with the Palestinians.
I was wrong. Yesterday’s LA Times has a stunning article by Siegman saying that there is a moral equivalence between Palestinian suicide bombers and the Israeli rocket attacks that mistakenly kill innocent Palestinians. He argues that the Israeli attacks are a cynical effort to sustain the violence, thereby “shattering an entire people” and avoiding a just peace with the Palestinians, at the pre-1967 borders.
The vast disproportion between Palestinian civilian casualties from Israeli “mistakes” and Israeli casualties from Palestinian terrorist assaults also brings into question the distinction between the two. It suggests that the killing of Palestinian civilians is, at the very least, more a matter of Israeli indifference than a mistake. Not a single Israeli has been killed by a Kassam rocket since Israel’s disengagement from Gaza last year, although during this period Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli artillery and airstrikes virtually on a daily basis. (According to B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group, Israeli forces have killed about 3,400 Palestinians since the intifada started, and Palestinians have killed about 1,000 Israelis).
WWII, ME troubles, and the rocking Cold War have generated generations of dishonest and hysterical ordinary and leading people everywhere in the world.
Above all, we need honesty in international relationship.
Henry Siegman is an honest and pragmatic man.
As a human being, Siegman makes mistakes, too. Forgive it to him.
Those should throw the first stone who are without sins.
HENRY SIEGMAN IS TO BE DENOUNCED FOR HIS CONSTATN LAYING ON ISRAEL THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MIDDLE EAST MESS. I UNDERSTAND SIEGMAN IS A PAID CONSULTANT,WITH A GROUP WHICH HAS ARAB INTERESTS, NOT A DETACHED OBSERVER. HE GETS PROMINENCE BECAUSE HE IS A PROMINENT JEW, AND USES IT TO HARM ISRAEL, WHICH HAS ENOUGH TROUBLE GIVEN ITS LEFTIST ORIENTED GOVT.WHICH HAS LOST FOCUS ON WHERE ITS INTERESTS LIE.
JERRY BORIS