Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August/September 2016, pp. 53-54
Other People’s Mail
Compiled by Dale Sprusansky
NETANYAHU IN HIS OWN WORDS
To the New Haven Register, June 17, 2016
How long and often have we heard about the two-state solution for Israel/Palestine? Here are some recent words of Binyamin Netanyahu:
“There cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish control of the territory west of the River Jordan.” Also: “At this time, we need to control all of the territory for the foreseeable future.”
Can any rational person believe that these statements offer a realistic possibility of the two parties coming to agreement? A Palestinian state with Israeli control of all of the West Bank?
Henry Clifford, Essex, CT
PALESTINIANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXIST ON THIER LAND
To the Los Angeles Times, June 20, 2016
I disagree that the anti-Israel boycott movement is a threat to peace. On the contrary, it is a nonviolent form of resistance to decades of Israeli occupation, theft of Palestinian land, and monopolization of water.
As a non-Zionist Jew, I support equal rights for all in Israel, Palestine and the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland.
To deny them the right of return is analogous to barring Native Americans from their sacred land, something we would never expect the indigenous inhabitants here to accept because it would be tantamount to saying they had no right to exist in their homeland.
Marcy Winograd, Santa Monica, CA
GOVERNOR CUOMO’S BOYCOTT HYPOCRISY
To The Washington Post, June 15, 2016
I was dismayed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s June 12 op-ed, “If you boycott Israel, New York will boycott you,” justifying his blatantly unconstitutional executive order creating a blacklist of supporters of Palestinian rights. The Democratic governor compared the nonviolent boycott, divestment and sanctions movement to terrorism. The call for BDS was instituted by Palestinian civil society leaders in response to decades of human rights abuses that governments and leaders have not been able to abate.
This was a hyperbolic attack on a constitutional right to boycott and a chilling attack on free speech. Criticizing and protesting a foreign government is not discrimination.
Furthermore, Mr. Cuomo’s statements represented sheer hypocrisy, as he saw nothing wrong with “discriminating” against the state of North Carolina by instituting a state nonessential-travel ban after it enacted a law restricting public restroom use by transgender people.
Mr. Cuomo should remember that he was elected to serve the people of New York, in the United States, where freedom of speech and protest are constitutional rights.
Jenn Gorelik, Arlington, VA
The writer is a member of the DC chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.
BDS IS PROTECTED UNDER THE FIRST AMENDMENT
To the Daily Freeman, June 14, 2016
Whatever your views on Israel/Palestine, McCarthyism is wrong.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 157, which he signed June 5, should concern each and every one of us. This order threatens the rights of Americans to take collective action to address injustice by using boycott as a form of free expression and as a powerful means of protest. Furthermore, the creation of the related discriminatory “blacklist,” which the New York Office of General Services will post on its website and update semiannually, is blatantly dangerous.
Thankfully, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects our right to free speech. This means we are allowed to express, be exposed to and receive a wide range of facts, opinions and viewpoints, even when the ideas are unpopular. Under this umbrella of free speech, Americans have the right to boycott, and we have a long history of using boycott as a tactic to achieve justice. Let’s remember that, before the American Revolution, colonists boycotted British goods (think “no taxation without representation”) and that, since then, American citizens (and corporations) involved in social justice movements have used boycotts for issues such as: animal rights, testing and welfare; civil rights; environmental health/integrity; human rights; LGBTQ discrimination; and labor and worker rights. The list goes on.
Cuomo’s shameful order against institutions and companies that support boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)—an international, grassroots nonviolent movement to gain freedom, equality and justice for Palestinians—goes against this history.
Go to <palestinelegal.org/newyork> to learn more.
The right to boycott is a constitutionally protected form of free speech. We will not be silent.
Helaine Meisler, Shady, NY
DON’T CONFUSE ANTI-SEMITISM WITH ANTI-ZIONISM
To The Seattle Times, June 27, 2016
The writers of “Recognize and speak out against anti-Semitism” [Opinion, June 27] claim: “Both anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are fueled by irrational hatred of the Jewish people.” They miss an important distinction in their condemnation of anti-Semitic acts.
Many Jews, including Albert Einstein, thought that Zionism was unwise as a political movement—and Einstein was certainly not an anti-Semite. More important, many people have come to the conclusion that BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) has become the only peaceful means left in attempting to persuade the Israeli government to reverse its course of violence and oppression against Palestinians.
Such activists are not anti-Semitic. They hope that the nation of Israel will succeed in a peaceful relationship with its neighbors. Americans, including many Jewish Americans, find the rhetorical accusation of anti-Semitism false and unhelpful in seeking a peaceful solution.
Steve Paul Moen, Seattle, WA
ELIE WIESEL AND THE IRAQ WAR
To The Boston Globe, July 7, 2016
Joseph P. Kahn’s obituary of Elie Wiesel highlights Wiesel’s Holocaust experience, his lifelong work on remembering victims of atrocities, and his numerous writings on the moral responsibilities of bearing witness to objectionable acts (“Elie Wiesel, unblinking witness to horror, dies,” Page A1, July 3). However, it has a glaring omission: Wiesel’s part in the mobilization effort for invading Iraq in 2003.
One of Wiesel’s various efforts was a private meeting with President George W. Bush in which he pushed for the war. It’s really ironic that a Nobel Peace laureate would go out of his way to engage in beating the drums for a highly questionable military action. It’s equally ironic that a report that celebrates the legacy of a public figure who devoted much of his life to remembering victims of genocides would fail to remind of Wiesel’s own failing and moral responsibility in a war effort whose carnage is far from over.
As someone who hails from Iraq, I owe it to both Iraqi and American victims of the Iraq invasion to bear witness to the needless loss of lives. If I learned something from Wiesel’s legacy, it’s standing up and demanding accountability for what we say and do.
Shakir Mustafa, Salem, NH
THE U.S. AND TERROR IN IRAQ
To The Seattle Times, July 10, 2016
The recent deadly attack in Baghdad, claimed by ISIS, killing more than 200 holiday-goers, is garnering sympathy worldwide [“Mass death in heart of Baghdad,” Page One, July 4].
Yet, here in the U.S., the larger context goes ignored. How many commentators are highlighting how today’s violence is a legacy of yesterday’s poor foreign policy choices? There has been no peace in Iraq since the first American bomb was dropped in 2003.
American forces destroyed Iraq’s government and plunged the country into chaos. The first al-Qaeda cell in Iraqi history formed in response to the occupation, later merging with forces in Syria to partly form the terrorist group ISIS.
The United States has inflicted monumental suffering on the people of Iraq through decades of sanctions, two catastrophic wars, and more than nine years of occupation—the effects of which are still being felt, including in the form of brutal attacks.
Iraqis deserve more than our thoughts and prayers. They deserve what’s long overdue: reparations for harm suffered and a human-rights tribunal to prosecute those guilty of war crimes, including Western leaders who waged war under false pretenses.
Michelle Ryder, Lake Tapps, WA
DRONES AND TERRORISM
To The Dallas Morning News, June 16, 2016
If we want to curb terrorism in the United States, we must stop drone attacks in Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan; Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency; former national security czar Richard Clarke; and many respected military and civilian leaders have called President Barack Obama’s use of his favorite military weapon “ill-advised” and “counterproductive.”
Every time we drop a drone bomb, we make terrorists out of ordinary people, who before their innocent family members were eviscerated bore no ill will toward the United States. “The resentment created by American use of unmanned strikes,” according to Stanley McChrystal, “is much greater than the average American appreciates.”
U.S. policy is creating more terrorists than it is killing.
Hadi Jawad, Old East Dallas, TX
KUDOS TO CANADA ON REFUGEES
To The New York Times, July 5, 2016
I read your article about Canadian families opening their arms, homes and wallets to Syrian families with tears in my eyes: tears of joy for the expression of pure humanity, and tears of sadness that this isn’t happening in our own country. We seem to have strayed very far from the promise of Emma Lazarus’s famous words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
That a presumptive presidential nominee and all his supporters can think that “making America great again” means closing our borders, hearts and minds to the plight of millions of men, women and children is testimony to just how lost we have become. Kudos to Canada, shame on us.
Susan Steinberg, Queens, NY
WAR IN AFGHANISTAN FUELED BY CORRUPTION
To The Washington Post, July 10, 2016
The July 7 editorial “A final commit
ment in Afghanistan” viewed the war in Afghanistan primarily in military terms. The main reason the U.S.-backed Afghan government has been losing is the rampant corruption that undermines public support for the government and fuels the insurgency. Since 2001, the United States has spent more than $110 billion on the reconstruction of Afghanistan, which, in current dollars, is more than we spent on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. This amount does not include the hundreds of billions the United States spent on the war in Afghanistan itself.
In Kabul, it is hard to see where the money was spent. That is because so much of it has left Afghanistan, carried away by corrupt government officials to secret bank accounts in Dubai and Switzerland. But a lot of the money has also ended up in Maryland and Virginia, in the coffers of U.S. contractors operating in Afghanistan that have made out like bandits.
The war goes on not only because the Taliban thinks it is winning, but also because it is a lucrative business for corrupt Afghan officials and for almost everyone else associated with the effort.
William Goodfellow, Washington, DC. The writer is executive director of the Center for International Policy and co-
coordinator of the Afghanistan Study Group. ◙
