Letters to the Editor
Feel free to use these letters to guide your own efforts.
Albuquerque Journal
Date: 16 Jan 2009
No individual or group of individuals speaks for the entire Albuquerque Jewish community. The truth is the Albuquerque Jewish community, as well as the Jewish community throughout the country and around the world, is sharply divided about what the Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is doing.
As an active member of the Albuquerque Jewish community, including being a member of Congregation Albert, for more than 30 years, I can no longer remain silent about what is happening in Israel/Palestine.
I vigorously condemn Hamas for their indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel, and I strongly support the need of the Israeli government to defend its citizens. However, I also condemn the terror the IDF is inflicting on Palestinian civilians. It is also important to note that the retaliatory bombardment by the IDF has killed a hundred times as many as the Kassam rockets from Gaza, injured thousands, and destroyed the homes of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
From my perspective, the harsh reality is that what the IDF is doing in Gaza in its horrific actions towards Palestinians is not going to protect Israeli citizens.
I am well aware that both Hamas and the Israeli government are refusing to agree to a ceasefire, and, meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinian people, including many women and children, are being slaughtered.
There needs to be an immediate ceasefire, and the perpetrators of war crimes on both sides must be held accountable. Further, as an American Jew, I hope and pray that the incoming US administration will support the United Nations in bringing an end to Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestinian territories and bring about a just peace.
Stanley Handmaker, MD
Corrales
Washington Post
Date: 16 Jan 2009
If only the weapons that have left over 1000 dead, and at least five times that number maimed, were included in the deal signed today by the United States and Israel [U.S., Israel Sign Deal to Stem Weapons Smuggling Into Gaza, 16 Jan 2009]. Alas, those weapons are "smuggled" in openly directly from the United States into Israel, and the profits go to Lockheed Martin.
Sincerely,
Heather Pankl Livingston
Silver Spring, MD
Albuquerque Journal
Date: 13 Jan 2009 10:05:38 EST
I was unable to attend the rally this weekend in opposition to the bombing and subsequent killing happening in Gaza now. I understand that Councilor Benton referred to it as "genocide". That is a very strong word and many people reacted very strongly to it. He has since apologized for his use of that word.
I am upset that so many people can get motivated to act against an individual who spoke with passion against the killing going on. People are dying and the inflammation here is only in how we refer to it, not that people are being killed.
I see the current military action against Gaza to be as inappropriate our current military against the occupied countries called Iraq and Afghanistan. The oppressed shoot a small rocket or plant an IED and 3 or four people get killed. I agree, that is terrible. Israel in Gaza and the US in Iraq and Afghanistan drop thousands of pounds of bombs from high in the sky. Hundreds of people die each day and I must add that there is no risk to the pilots who drop these bombs or to the people in Nellis AFB, Nevada who control the Predator remote controlled aircraft.
I would like to ask those who were offended by Councilor Benton's comments to come to the next rally and to ask the demonstrators what they want, maybe just read the signs that we hold up. There will be a couple of radicals but predominantly the message is; STOP THE KILLING! Peace does not come from bombing, death comes from bombing. Peace comes from mutual respect. Did you listen to the message from the "supporters of Israel"? They feel that Israel has the right to drop bombs in a very heavily populated area with no military targets, where a lot of children are killed in each explosion.
Please think before you act.
Terry Riley
Albuquerque Journal
Date: Sunday 11 January 2009
Albuquerque Jews Must Speak Out Against Israeli Tactics
The same month that the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Israel attacked the Gaza Strip where an Israeli blockade has trapped 1.5 million civilians for over two years.
Since the start of the military operation, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed and 2,500 injured, according to U.N. officials. Humanitarian supplies have been blocked, ... resulting in shortages of food, drinking water and medicine. Emergency surgery in Gazan hospitals is happening without proper anesthesia and equipment. ... The foreign press has been barred from entering Gaza since early November, blinding the eyes of the world. ...
For almost two years, Hamas maintained a one-sided ceasefire, created a social safety net for widows and orphans and brought a measure of stability to the society. Hamas leaders remain in Israeli prisons and have been targets for assassinations.
Violence against civilians on both sides is to be condemned. However, the crude and imprecise homemade rockets that have been fired into Israeli cities cannot be compared to the sophisticated weaponry used by the Israelis. ... The ongoing siege would not be possible without the massive military and political support provided by Washington.
According to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, from 2001-2006, the United States transferred more than $300 million in spare parts for F16s and Apache helicopters. In 2008, during our oil crisis, the United States supplied 186 million gallons of aviation jet fuel and signed a contract for an additional $1.9 billion worth of combat ships for the Israeli navy. Last year, the United States signed a $1.3 billion contract to transfer thousands of missiles to Israel. ...
Israel, the strongest military power in the Middle East ... does not feel secure. Security comes from upholding international law and supporting human rights for all.
More than 5,000 Israelis marched in Tel Aviv to protest the army's incursion in Gaza. The government responded by prohibiting all protests. The Israeli government has broken international law and must be held accountable. ...
As American Jews, we condemn in the strongest possible terms that U.S. tax dollars and weaponry are being used to carry out a massacre of civilians. What is happening in Gaza are war crimes against humanity that have not been tolerated anywhere else.
After World War II Jews said, "Never again." The world agrees — never again will we allow the slaughter of innocent civilians. This applies to all human beings regardless of ethnicity, religion or gender.
We must speak out. Silence is complicity.
Iris Keltz
Albuquerque Editor's note: Keltz is a member of Another Jewish Voice, a grassroots alliance of progressive New Mexican Jews working to ensure equal rights, safety and dignity for all peoples of the Middle East.
Denver Post
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009
Israeli actions do not depend on the presence or absence of Hamas. Since its inception in 1948, the State of Israel has consistently acted to prevent the existence of a viable Palestinian state. No matter which political parties or leaders are chosen in Palestine, Israel has always worked to assure that there would be no meaningful Palestinian autonomy.
The dominant Israeli political party in recent decades has been Likud, whose 1999 Party Charter states: “The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river .” The 1996 and versions from the 1970s were at least as bellicose.
So, it matters not what governance the people of Palestine choose: Israel will progressively confine and constrict until “ Palestine ” is whittled down to a few “Indian Reservations’, where only the broken and subservient would be permitted to remain.
The remedy: The US must stop interfering with the application of international law to Israel and instead encourage Israel to follow the norms of behavior for all other nation states. Israel ’s neighbors have offered multiple proposals to establish normal relations (2002 and 2006 Saudi plans, most recently) which fell upon deaf Israeli ears. Without US vetoes in the UN, Israel would be more likely to seek reconciliation with its neighbors and be able to shift to a peace-based economy.
*Writer's Bio:
I am a retired civil engineer, of Northern European Protestant ancestry with no family or religious roots in middle eastern relationships. In the course of my profession, I spent about 1-1/2 years living and working in Palestine, between 2002 and 2007. During most of the the rest of that time, I lived and worked in other nations in the region: Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, and Egypt, with short assignments in Jordan and UAE.
My work in Palestine was the design of a water pipeline in Gaza, that I ran while living in Ramallah. I ran a project team of 12 - 15 persons in Gaza City, so have personal knowledge of the high levels of competence and personal character of many in that region. The client was in Tel Aviv, so I spent quite a bit of time in Israel, as well as in Palestine.
Gary Anderson
Letter to the Editor
Albuquerque Journal
27 Dec 2008
Re: "Israel demolishes Hamas compounds, over 200 dead" an Associated Press article written by IBRAHIM BARZAK and published by the Albuquerque Journal on December 27, 2008.
Dear Editor,
The article you ran ended by saying Israel had ended its occupation of Gaza. This is not entirely accurate. The Israeli government did withdraw settlers from the Gaza Strip but it controls its borders, both land and sea, and its airspace. Gaza is under a modern-day seige; Israel severely restricts supplies from entering the territory, including food and humanitarian aid trucks from the UN. Many are calling this seige a war crime. Rather than ending the occupation, Israel has merely changed tactics.
Any sane observer will realize that Israel's inhumane airstrikes on Hamas today, killing civilians as well as government officials, will only trigger more rocket attacks on southern Israel. Some pundits say the Israeli government had no choice; they had to appear strong with elections coming up.
When will Israel realize that there is no military solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? When will Palestinian militants realize that nonviolent resistance to the occupation is the only way to galvanize global public opinion to their side and to successfully isolate the Israeli government?
I'm ashamed that my tax dollars as an American were used today to fund the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, civilians who were already suffering from severe and immoral shortages of food and medicine. Is this the Israel that Obama so staunchly will defend without question?
Susan Schuurman
[contact information]
Letter to the Editor
Albuquerque Journal
28 Dec 2008
To: opinion@abqjournal.com
From: Sally McMillan [contact information
Dear Editor:
This latest brutal Israeli attack on Gaza has killed hundreds of civilians. As usual, it has been portrayed as a response to rockets from Gaza being fired into Israel. I wonder when the truth will be told that the rockets are a response to Israel's abusive treatment of these people. Israel is refusing to let food or fuel be brought into Gaza, and the people there are suffering severe hardship, malnutrition, and lack of medical supplies. Their borders are closed to them and to any aid that is sent to them. It is the responsibility of an occupying power to treat the occupied humanely. United Nations observers have reported on the Israeli disregard for international law, but the world has remained indifferent. Do we only respond to military violence?
I wonder if President-elect Obama will speak out. The world is perhaps waiting for him to take the lead. He cannot ignore the situation in Gaza and retain his reputation as a defender of human rights. Despite the Zionist influence of his advisers, will he pass this test?
Alibi
29 December 2008
Dear Alibi and Albuquerque,
Timing is everything. Before the shoe ducking, bomb anything White House squatter leaves our Nation's stolen house, before the January '09 inauguration of Obama, our one president at a time guy--except on US economic matters, and before the February '09 Israeli elections, we see Gaza massacred with our jets, our helicopters, our new, improved bunker buster GBU-39 rocket, and, of course, our tax money. At least $7 million a month we give Israel, around 82 million dollars a year, but what do we give the 1.5 million refugees in Gaza while they are turkey shot in their open air ghetto? Gaza has three times the population of Albuquerque in about half the land size; how smart can a killer bomb be to miss neighbors, families, and children while searching for its supposed military target? So far there’s been over two hundred thousand Merry Christmas pounds dropped on this little Warsaw like ghetto which has been sanctioned and starved for over a year due to their 2007 democratic elections which brought in the wrong government. We just can't seem to get this spreading democracy election thing right; we get a Shia dominated government in Iraq, a puppet mayorship in Afghanistan, and Hamas in Gaza. Democracy is just too good for those types; they need to elect our choices. Now, in an area smaller than ABQ with three times the people of ABQ, Israel explodes the weapons we sold them in September. Timing again? Nothing like a live fire Middle East testing on stacked Palestinian apartment buildings to see how many stacked bodies we can get--a bigger bang for our US buck. Timing is everything; we have given Guernica in Gaza to the world. So what are you going to do about it?
Sue Small
[contact information]
Guernica