I can only assume that the Senator was being sincere in the speech he gave on Oct 17, however, is he really equating a Palestinian woman standing at an Israeli checkpoint with children tugging at her sleeve while she holds bags of groceries or other basic needs with an Israeli deciding whether to risk going to a restaurant?

 

These candidates should be invited to speak and then forced to sit through a well-documented video highlighting the differences between the daily lives on each side of a "checkpoint".  Then, ask them to explain how they can make a difference.  I am sure their current sincerity is based on a minimum of information - just enough to say the right things.

 

Otherwise, I cannot see how they could possibly be expected to "do the right thing" once they are in a position to do so.

 

Mohammad Dawani

Malaysia

 

 

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Reply to Mr. Sweetling's letter (Letters to the Editor, October 29, 2003 )

I wish to respond to the recent letter by Mr. William Sweetling. In it, he wrote that: "a conspiracy is underway to keep Americans ignorant of other cultures' values and issues, deliberately portraying these other cultures as threats to American security, while subsidizing those cultures who do not threaten America's right-wing insane quest for global domination and/or destruction."

When Mr. Sweetling says: "other cultures' values and issues", I assume he means to say "Muslims". He goes on to write about America subsidizing those cultures who do not threaten their "quest for global domination etc".... Not true. The US struck a $2 billion deal with Malaysia's Petronas to jointly develop Iran's South Pars oilfield & PM Margaret Thatcher negotiated a £234 million aid package to build Malaysia's Pergau Dam.

I think many would agree that for all the negative words Dr. Mahathir has said or intimated about Jews/USA, he was happy to "deal-with -the-devil" as it were, when it suited him.

I would also like to point out a small section of the same article by Dr. Mohamed Khodr which Mr. Sweeting failed to do, which says: "But in all fairness one must never generalize about "Jews" for some of the most courageous, ardent, vocal voices against Zionism and Israel's brutality are Jews themselves---in fact, much more so than the entire cowardly 57 Muslim governments who are just as oppressive to their own peoples as Israel is to Palestinians."

On this point, I draw attention to the many "unreported" coup d'etat's in Saudi Arabia, of which, not all were attempted by those who felt the same way as Bin Laden re: Saudi/USA ties. More-so, to do with domestic matters.

 

Haron. (Australia)

 

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).