ANDY MARTIN RESPONDS TO THE WALL STREET JOURNAL OP-ED "STRAGHT TALK ON PALESTINE" (MARCH 20, 2007)
Letters to the Editor
Wall Street Journal
Re: Straight Talk on Palestine (March 20, 2007)
I have been a reader of the WSJ for over forty-five years. It is truly disappointing to see one of American journalism's jewels steadily debased and corrupted by an editorial page that has become a mouthpiece for Israeli extremism. Tuesday's "Straight Talk on Palestine" was nothing more than right-wing Israeli propaganda.
Americans are dying in the Middle East and more will die because of the maniacal myopia of the Bush administration and its supporters such as the WSJ editorial page.
The "Straight Talk" should have been labeled "Straight Lies."
Mr. Toameh says Palestinians have not recognized Israel's right to exist. Has Israel recognized Palestine's right to exist? Where, show me a document. There is none. Israelis demand recognition that they themselves have refused to afford Palestinians.
Israeli mendacity has created and perpetuated the myth that Palestinians rejected a state in 2000. There is not a single sheet of paper to document a formal, written Israeli offer. The big lie persists, in large part through the auspices of your editorial page. Why is Palestinian recognition a precondition and Israeli recognition is not? The issue of whether each party has a right to exist is as subject to negotiation on the Palestinian side as it is on the Israeli side.
Mr. Toameh says Palestinians claim the right to resist occupation. Well, I should hope so! That is a human right, not a Palestinian right. In my opinion Palestinians have been all too patient and all too peaceful in dealing with forty years of Israeli occupation. Fighting Israeli occupation is, to repeat, a human right, and an obligation of every human being.
Mr. Toameh condemns Palestinian ambiguity. Who is more ambiguous than the Israelis? Who has been playing word games for sixty years, while seeking to steadily steal Palestinian lands for a "Greater Israel?" There is equal ambiguity on all sides. That's negotiation and diplomacy. Extremists on both sides are not prepared for peace. That's the truth.
American politics on the Middle East is conducted in a climate of fear. WSJ-supported AIPAC and the "Israel lobby" terrorize the political system into parroting extreme Israeli demands, thereby abandoning the sensible neutrality of President Eisenhower's years.
George Bush has been an Israeli valet for six years. What has it gotten him? Nothing but a war that has destroyed his presidency.
Pro-Israel fanatics destroyed Illinois' own Senator Charles Percy, and Representative Paul Findley. These men were honorable public servants who were hounded from office because they sought balance in our Middle East policy. Their carcasses were left to intimidate any honest politician who would stand against Israeli imperialism.
If America stood for fairness and equality instead of blindly supporting Israel, peace would come very quickly. The Israeli warmongers would stop hungering for conflict when they did not have American blood and treasure to support them. Last summer Israel jumped into a pre—planned proxy war on behalf of Bush and the Israeli right. Israelis were devastated and resorted to terrorism and atrocities to barely survive.
Peace is possible. But peace will never come as long as American media such as the WSJ abandon all reason and objectivity and act as agents for the Israeli regime. We are as much under occupation as the Palestinians and Iraqis.
Ironically, your support for Israel is self-destructive and counterproductive. By encouraging war and occupation and a miasma of lies from the Israeli imperialists you undermine America's economy and our role in the world. Your support for war in Iraq has produced bitter fruit for our nation and our future role in the world.
The American people are fed up with Israel and Israeli demands for unconditional American support. George Bush put Palestinian freedom fighters on trial in Chicago and Tampa, and both times federal court juries rejected the Justice Department's Israeli-inspired lies. What does that tell you?
Forty years ago David Astor, the venerated editor of the London Observer, wrote that there were "two wronged peoples" in Palestine. You would do America proud if you adopted Astor's attitude and rejected your own. Maybe then we would really be on the road to peace.
Respectfully submitted,
ANDY MARTIN
AM:sp
Letters to the Editor
Wall Street Journal
Re: Straight Talk on Palestine (March 20, 2007)
I have been a reader of the WSJ for over forty-five years. It is truly disappointing to see one of American journalism's jewels steadily debased and corrupted by an editorial page that has become a mouthpiece for Israeli extremism. Tuesday's "Straight Talk on Palestine" was nothing more than right-wing Israeli propaganda.
Americans are dying in the Middle East and more will die because of the maniacal myopia of the Bush administration and its supporters such as the WSJ editorial page.
The "Straight Talk" should have been labeled "Straight Lies."
Mr. Toameh says Palestinians have not recognized Israel's right to exist. Has Israel recognized Palestine's right to exist? Where, show me a document. There is none. Israelis demand recognition that they themselves have refused to afford Palestinians.
Israeli mendacity has created and perpetuated the myth that Palestinians rejected a state in 2000. There is not a single sheet of paper to document a formal, written Israeli offer. The big lie persists, in large part through the auspices of your editorial page. Why is Palestinian recognition a precondition and Israeli recognition is not? The issue of whether each party has a right to exist is as subject to negotiation on the Palestinian side as it is on the Israeli side.
Mr. Toameh says Palestinians claim the right to resist occupation. Well, I should hope so! That is a human right, not a Palestinian right. In my opinion Palestinians have been all too patient and all too peaceful in dealing with forty years of Israeli occupation. Fighting Israeli occupation is, to repeat, a human right, and an obligation of every human being.
Mr. Toameh condemns Palestinian ambiguity. Who is more ambiguous than the Israelis? Who has been playing word games for sixty years, while seeking to steadily steal Palestinian lands for a "Greater Israel?" There is equal ambiguity on all sides. That's negotiation and diplomacy. Extremists on both sides are not prepared for peace. That's the truth.
American politics on the Middle East is conducted in a climate of fear. WSJ-supported AIPAC and the "Israel lobby" terrorize the political system into parroting extreme Israeli demands, thereby abandoning the sensible neutrality of President Eisenhower's years.
George Bush has been an Israeli valet for six years. What has it gotten him? Nothing but a war that has destroyed his presidency.
Pro-Israel fanatics destroyed Illinois' own Senator Charles Percy, and Representative Paul Findley. These men were honorable public servants who were hounded from office because they sought balance in our Middle East policy. Their carcasses were left to intimidate any honest politician who would stand against Israeli imperialism.
If America stood for fairness and equality instead of blindly supporting Israel, peace would come very quickly. The Israeli warmongers would stop hungering for conflict when they did not have American blood and treasure to support them. Last summer Israel jumped into a pre—planned proxy war on behalf of Bush and the Israeli right. Israelis were devastated and resorted to terrorism and atrocities to barely survive.
Peace is possible. But peace will never come as long as American media such as the WSJ abandon all reason and objectivity and act as agents for the Israeli regime. We are as much under occupation as the Palestinians and Iraqis.
Ironically, your support for Israel is self-destructive and counterproductive. By encouraging war and occupation and a miasma of lies from the Israeli imperialists you undermine America's economy and our role in the world. Your support for war in Iraq has produced bitter fruit for our nation and our future role in the world.
The American people are fed up with Israel and Israeli demands for unconditional American support. George Bush put Palestinian freedom fighters on trial in Chicago and Tampa, and both times federal court juries rejected the Justice Department's Israeli-inspired lies. What does that tell you?
Forty years ago David Astor, the venerated editor of the London Observer, wrote that there were "two wronged peoples" in Palestine. You would do America proud if you adopted Astor's attitude and rejected your own. Maybe then we would really be on the road to peace.
Respectfully submitted,
ANDY MARTIN
AM:sp
posted by Andy Martin | 10:46 AM
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