Published.
Had a letter to the editor published in today's Birmingham News. They toned it down a bit, making it a little less snarky than my original, but that's OK.
Here's the letter, as published:
There's no country of Palestine:
A Monday letter, "Fence takes more Palestinian land," referred to the mythical country of "Palestine." There is no such autonomous country, and there never has been. Before the 1948 creation of the state of Israel, most Arabs living in that land referred to themselves as Syrians, not Palestinians.
In 1950, Ahmed Shuqeiri, one of the first leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told the United Nations "it is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria."
There is no such thing as Palestinian land. Before the 1967 Six-Day War, the so-called West Bank and East Jerusalem were part of Jordan, and the Gaza Strip was part of Egypt. Israel seized and annexed these lands to have a buffer zone from further attacks by hostile neighbors.
As the Israeli ambassador to the United States said on a recent visit to Birmingham: Israel is not the true builder of the security fence. The terrorists who cross the border to blow up innocent men, women and children are the creators of the fence. If there were no terrorists, there would be no fence.
Israel's Supreme Court allows people who have been affected by the security fence to appeal to the court. Recently, the court decided that a portion of the route caused too much hardship to local Palestinians and ordered the fence rerouted. Because Israel is a democratic and fair-minded country, the military is obeying the order and tearing down that section of the fence.
Jews are not interlopers in the land of Israel. There has been a continuous Jewish presence there for more than 3,700 years. Long before Europeans arrived on this continent, when tribes of Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw Native Americans flourished in Central Alabama, Jews thrived in Israel.
The letter writer has much less claim to his home here than Jews do to the land of Israel.
Eric J. Rzeszut
Crestwood
Here's the letter, as published:
There's no country of Palestine:
A Monday letter, "Fence takes more Palestinian land," referred to the mythical country of "Palestine." There is no such autonomous country, and there never has been. Before the 1948 creation of the state of Israel, most Arabs living in that land referred to themselves as Syrians, not Palestinians.
In 1950, Ahmed Shuqeiri, one of the first leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told the United Nations "it is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria."
There is no such thing as Palestinian land. Before the 1967 Six-Day War, the so-called West Bank and East Jerusalem were part of Jordan, and the Gaza Strip was part of Egypt. Israel seized and annexed these lands to have a buffer zone from further attacks by hostile neighbors.
As the Israeli ambassador to the United States said on a recent visit to Birmingham: Israel is not the true builder of the security fence. The terrorists who cross the border to blow up innocent men, women and children are the creators of the fence. If there were no terrorists, there would be no fence.
Israel's Supreme Court allows people who have been affected by the security fence to appeal to the court. Recently, the court decided that a portion of the route caused too much hardship to local Palestinians and ordered the fence rerouted. Because Israel is a democratic and fair-minded country, the military is obeying the order and tearing down that section of the fence.
Jews are not interlopers in the land of Israel. There has been a continuous Jewish presence there for more than 3,700 years. Long before Europeans arrived on this continent, when tribes of Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw Native Americans flourished in Central Alabama, Jews thrived in Israel.
The letter writer has much less claim to his home here than Jews do to the land of Israel.
Eric J. Rzeszut
Crestwood
Labels: politics
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home