Letters to the Editor

Wall Street Journal

Via: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com

The Journal did a great disservice to its readers when it published the op-ed piece "Stop Terror at its Source" on June 28th. Your editorial page, of course, supports the Israeli regime. I do not. But reasonable people can still carry on a civil discourse.

Michael Oren advocates a policy of government assassination against Israel's "enemies," whom he calls terrorists. The reality is that the State of Israel is as much of a terrorist entity as Hamas and the other extremist groups vying for supremacy over the same land.

There is a supreme arrogance in telling your readers assassinations are acceptable because "Who today remembers Abdel Aziz Rantisi, and Sheik Yassin?" This kind of arrogance should be filed under "How many divisions does the Pope have?" and other ludicrous declarations. Unfortunately for Mr. Oren, the victims of Israeli assassination are very well remembered in Palestine and throughout the world. Israel continues to apply a lacquer of state-sponsored amnesia to its self-destructive policies.

Israel did not "withdraw" from Gaza in 2005; the Israeli forces merely redeployed, and then began a campaign of terror and strangulation against the helpless Gazan population.

Israel is a very powerful nation. It could and should have made peace long ago. In 2001, peace was very close, but that golden opportunity was fumbled by the Bush administration.

In almost sixty years of trying, Israel has been unable to come to an accommodation with the victims of the creation of the State of Israel, who were unlawfully dispossessed by politicians at the U. N. and power brokers in the Democratic Party in the Truman administration.

Innocent Americans in Iraq, as well as innocent Palestinians, are paying the price for the kind of arrogance that believes the appropriate response to the taking of a captive in a declared war should be a reign of state-sponsored terror across the Middle East. Ultimately, Israel as a nation and as a concept is its own worst enemy. The Journal abets Israeli delusions when it publishes Mr. Oren's claims that assassination can ever lead to a peace.

It is time for truth telling in Washington, Tel Aviv and at the WSJ. We are assassinating ourselves when we seek to kill those who disagree with our policies. Unfortunately, the Journal editorial page long ago abdicated the role of a newspaper concerning Israel, which is to afford readers an intelligent discussion of opposing viewpoints, so that common sense may eventually evolve. Instead, you publish a relentless diet of hateful propaganda by Israeli supporters, and only confirm that violent opposition to the Israeli regime is the only option open to Palestinians. For shame.

                    Respectfully submitted,

                    ANDY MARTIN

                    EXECUTIVE EDITOR

                    CONTRARIANCOMMENTARY.COM

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