The Other Side

"The realities of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are tortuously complex, and bear no resemblance to the black and white picture Aizenstat paints."

You wouldn't know it from what is written by Melnick, Cohen, and other haters of Palestinians and Arabs, and apologists for Israeli state policy come hell or high water. My parents taught me that we Jews are good, ethical, truthful people. It has been a great tragedy for me to learn how wrong they were about far too many of us.

My response to jpb
My parents tahght me that all people are the same, that no one human being is better or worse than others. i am sorry that your paraents taught you otherwise. why don't you complain to them about convincing you that Jews are so superior?

Response to jpb:
The real tragedy here is that people love to hate the so-called strong countries. Israel is defending itself against a terror war with respect, with great honor. But, these barbarian acts of terrorism are not easy to understand from comfort zone of Santa Barbara. What do you know of the rockets flying and exploding on your house. Have you ever tried to live your everyday life and raise kids with terror going on around you?

Maybe Israel's mistake, is not looking pitiful like the Palestinian people who use the propaganda of crying and whining to the world when their own people blow themselves up in the middle of the crowd. Guess who is complaining to the world about the evilness - the Palestinians who send hundreds of rockets to the nearest city in Israel for one purpose only, to kill as many civilians as possible....

When Israel builds a wall, so those terrorist will not cross and kill children and women, guess who is complaining to the world? Palestinians...

Maybe this is the solution - Israel needs to show weakness, allow a few hundred more civilians to be slaughtered, and then you will understand its actions.

How lucky we are that Israel doesn't need your approval, and takes care of itself. If you want to help the Palestinians, convince them to stop terrorizing Israeli civilians. Then - only then - would they have a chance for peace and an end to their own hardship.

The first poster in this series of comments, "jqb," should exercise greater care in flinging around the accusation that Ami Cohen and I are "haters of Palestinians and Arabs." What a terribly damaging, hurtful thing to write, and utterly without substantiation. As anyone who knows me will attest, my understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict begins with the premise that both peoples have legitimate claims on the land, and that the only way forward is through a willingness to compromise. And as a board member of the Santa Barbara ADL, I am as committed to speaking out against hate speech and racism directed at Muslims as I am ready to speak out against anti-Semitism. I believe whole-heartedly in the rights of the Palestinians to a homeland, and I advocate strongly for a two-state solution. You want to argue with my letter, fine. You want to disagree with my views, great - just be sure you have taken the trouble to discern what those views are before you start throwing punches. But when you accuse me of harboring a racist hatred of Palestinians or other Arabs, you cross a line.

Peter Melnick

"why don't you complain to them about convincing you that Jews are so superior?"

I said nothing about superiority; I wrote of being good, ethical, and truthful. I believe even an anti-semite like yourself you could achieve that, if you tried.

To Peter Melnick: The line is crossed with your lies about Israeli commitments and about history.

Ah, I now realize that amic is Ami Cohen -- not an anti-semite, yet she uses their language, talking about Jews thinking they are superior. She asks why I don't complain about what my parents taught me -- ah, but I did just that. My parents were clearly wrong -- there are despicably dishonest Jews, like Ms. Cohen.

To both sides: These personal attacks are not helping resolve the issue of discussion.