Why is Ali Mirza writing a letter of protest ("U.S. should not support Israelis in Palestine-Israel conflict," April 6) to us when the real enemy of the Palestinians are the 22 countries of the Arab League?
Despite their huge collective oil and land wealth, these rich Arab countries offer nothing except incitement to their impoverished Arab cousins, many of whom remain in refugee camps 60 years after the first Israel war. He should write letters of protest to the Arab press.
Israel has resettled 1 million Jewish refugees from these same countries. At the same time, over 1 million Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more rights than any other Arabs in the Middle East.
Israel left Gaza years ago and was forced to return after being bombarded with 2,000 rockets over two years! What did you expect? When you vote into office a gang of terrorists who promise warfare, you invite your own fate.
Gaza shares a border with Egypt. Why not send a letter to the Egyptian press to open up the border?
Frankly, I am fed up with the whining of Palestinian apologists who write letters like lawyers while their clients act like terrorists. When you shoot rockets into any country the reaction will always be horrific.
Americans are not sympathetic to those elements that choose to suicide bomb, behead, stone women to death, kill rivals, bomb mosques, issue fatwas, waste time by burning flags, organize parades that teach their children to hate, etc. And then cry to American readers that we are not sympathetic to them.
It has been said that when the Arabs learn to love their children more than they hate Israel, there will be peace in the Middle East. Mr. Mirza, you are writing to the wrong constituency.
- Steve Laitman
Westport
In the Monday, April 6, newspaper, the Commentary section featured a piece on freeing Palestine ("U.S. should not support Israelis in Palestine-Israel conflict").
I'm not going to get into how many things are wrong with the piece (misinformation, taboo and inflammatory word choices, ignorance regarding the essence of war and conflict, etc.), and it is indeed the author's opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt as such (and I would say this for anything pro-Israel, anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian or anti-Palestinian). My beef with your newspaper - and this comes from the perspective of someone who worked for four years at a Student Pulitzer-prize winning newspaper in the Midwest - is that it was an irresponsible op-ed choice. Issues as divisive as those in the Middle East demand a dual op-ed where you have two opinion pieces, one from each side of the line.
When you publish one vehemently anti-Israel op-ed, your newspaper, perhaps without intending it, earns itself a label of anti-Israel sentiment, tarnishing the newspaper's image and resulting in a loss of readership by those who assume that you're running an anti-Israel rag. Of course, this might be the overall opinion of the newspaper, and if so, that's fine and well, but it's irresponsible journalism and proves the ignorance and irresponsibility of your newspaper's student reporters, and more importantly, its editors. Next time you choose to print such a one-sided op-ed, consider taking a step back and looking at how you could have created a productive dialogue on one page of newsprint, as opposed to a fire-fueling discourse of someone talking at the reading audience (as opposed to with them, that is).
People have enough trouble telling the difference between an opinion piece and the actual news in The Daily Campus. Try being a bit more responsible in your journalistic choices.
- Chaviva Edwards
Graduate student in judaic studies
I know that Ali Mirza's article ("U.S. should not support Israel in Palestine-Israel conflict," April 6) is an opinion article, and therefore you are not responsible for its content, but one point must be made: you need to show greater discretion in choosing opinion articles.
This article is extremely inappropriate, offensive, and hateful. "Opinion" does not mean that people have free reign to spew messages of hate and offensive lies. All of the writer's claims are totally factually inaccurate, and he makes wild accusations against an entire people, including genocide.
This article is not an opinion article bashing the Israeli defensive strike against Gaza in January, it is an all-out libel against an internationally recognized nation and a religion. I'm not going to argue the justness of the Gaza defensive, because I realize that that is Mr. Mirza's opinion, and he has the right to his opinion, but this article goes way beyond the scope of a mere opinion on an issue. I am personally offended and angered to have to read this article. Please show greater discretion in the opinion articles you choose.
- Daniel Atwood
Teaneck, N.J.
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