Readers' Letters, June 16, 2003

Readers' Letters, June 16, 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info

Educating Americans about roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Dear Editor,

The last few weeks have been a real struggle for me. I’ve held a lot of anger inside since September 11^th. I didn’t want to let go of it. By opening up and expressing myself I’ve been able to see things from a different perspective. I can smile sincerely again and I’ve come to realize that my post 9/11 opinions weren’t far from accurate. I believed then that Israel had crossed the line between defense and aggression. I see that today as well and I wonder why still support them in any way, shape or form. I did something else I haven’t done since the pre 9/11 days as well, I wrote the President president@whitehouse.gov and asked that he end our support of Israel until the aggression stops. I don’t suppose he’ll read my letter personally but perhaps it will impact the feedback he gets from his staff on e-mail opinions. I did something else that I haven’t ever done. I wrote CBS, NBC and FOX with this request:

“The most significant event to affect our nation during my lifetime occurred on September 11th, 2001. Nearly every Muslim in the world tells us that we have some responsibility due to the crisis between Israel and Palestine. Studying the issue one can see their point. Israel is so much stronger militarily than Palestine and has literally cut Palestine to pieces through settlements and security endeavors with our blessing.

As I study the situation I realize how little I understand about the situation and what led to key events in forming the crisis. My search for answers on line has provided more information than I can consume and filter as much of it is biased in favor of one side of the other. With this in mind it occurs to me that as a nation we would be well served to research the issue in its entirely. I would like to see a week long special that provides the British, French, Jewish, Palestinian and U. S. position on key dates in the conflict, most notably:

The beginning of Jewish migration in the 1800s

The end of the Ottoman Empire

British colonialism

French colonialism

1920/1921 Arab riots

1929 Arab riots

1936-1938 Arab riots

November 29, 1947 UN Decision to partition Palestine into two states

1948 Dair Yassin massacres

May 15, 1948 Declaration of the State of Israel and beginning of the War for Independence-Israel invaded by five Arab states

1956 Qibyeh, Khan Younis and Rafah

1967 eviction of Palestinians

1978 Camp David and Peace Treaty with Egypt-

1982 Sabra and Shatilla

Oslo peace process

1987 Intifada (Arab uprising)

I do not wish to see the standard yelling and screaming and matches, just some honest opinions on how people felt and what motivated their actions on these key dates. I would like to see perhaps 2 hours a day for a week with:

Day 1 British and French perspectives

Day 2 Palestinian perspective on all key dates

Day 3 Jewish perspective on all key dates

Day 4 U. S. perspective on key dates since involvement

Day 5 A joint session between the parties to find a basis for ending the crisis (and a big joint prayer for peace)”

I feel better than I have in years….

Rich Maurice

Editor: I wholeheartedly support this suggestion and I hope that main US TV stations agree to do it.

I wonder how long it is going to take before the nations of the world stand up to Israel and its supporters and say enough is enough! How many more massacres do these people want at the expense of our people before they decide to take courage in numbers and stop the slaughter, especially our Arab brethren and our despicable cowardly self serving leaders!

Perhaps, insha'allah, this new group will open up the eyes and ears of the American public who remain blind and ignorant of the true realities facing Falestine. At present it seems we Palestinians only have ourselves for support and even then we have many individuals who let our own people down. I sometimes wonder where Allah is and question why He does not intervene to help our people who love Him with so much passion and devotion. It really is an unbearable tragedy but I shall strive with every bone in my body to correct the misinformation fed to Westerners by the powerful and deceitful Zionist lobby.

The Arab Islamic world has a wonderful rich history, having contributed much to modern civilisation and sciences and we should acknowledge this with tremendous pride and strive to enrich our historical heritage and Nation once more, to rule our people with dignity and humility and above all with justice and freedom.

AAPER-- A new force on the scene

Notice from Citizens for Fair Legislation

We would like to invite you to visit www.americansforpalestine.org
to learn more about a new group which we believe is very promising.
Take the time to surf through the site and then offer words of
encouragement. Please pass this email around so that more groups can
link up with AAPER and offer more support.

Thank You

Maisoon

U.S. military compound in Iraq attacked

Reuters

June 15, 2003

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=317981

U.S. May Send Troops “After Hamas”: Lawmaker

Islam Online

June 15, 2003

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-06/15/article11.shtml

Lugar: U.S. Troops May Have to Go After Hamas

By Lori Santos

Reuters

Sunday, June 15, 2003

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2931162

Turning the tanks on the reporters

Iraq will go down as the war when journalists seemed to become a target, writes Philip Knightley

Sunday June 15, 2003
The Observer

The Pentagon made it clear from the beginning of the Iraq war that there would be no censorship. What it failed to say was that war correspondents might well find themselves in a situation similar to that in Korea in 1950. This was described by one American correspondent as the military saying: 'You can write what you like - but if we don't like it we'll shoot you.' The figures in Iraq tell a terrible story. Fifteen media people dead, with two missing, presumed dead. If you consider how short the campaign was, Iraq will be notorious as the most dangerous war for journalists ever.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,977700,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,975416,00.html

US plays aid card to fix war crimes exemption

Ian Traynor in Zagreb

Thursday June 12, 2003
The Guardian (London)

Sent by Tim Stinson

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.

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