Israel, Palestinians and Violence in Gaza and the West Bank
The Times has dutifully reported the riots in Gaza and on the West Bank. Unfortunately, while mentioning the casualties and intimating that only territorial compromises can stop the bloodshed, no mention is made of important facts.
The fact that Jordan comprises 77% of original Palestine with Israel owning only 23%. The fact that Jordan could have created a Palestinian state from 1948 to 1967--but did not. The fact that the Palestine Liberation Organization was born in 1965--two years prior to Israel’s “occupation” of any territories except the sliver granted them by the United Nations. And the fact that Gaza and the West Bank were used as terrorist launching points for 19 years prior to the 1967 Arab leadership call to obliterate Israel.
Today’s shooting of Arabs is tragic. So is the killing and maiming of Israeli soldiers by rocks that prove as effective when they hit as do bullets. But the solution is not so easy as Israelis moving out of Gaza and the West Bank. Especially when the bottom line on PLO policy is to move Jews all the way out--to the sea.
The media has remained strangely silent or low key when Israeli citizens are killed in their cities and towns by PLO and other Arab terrorist activities. Why this extended moral outcry over Gaza and the West Bank but only short, muted blips when Israeli Jews suffer and die? Does such bias really promote long-term Middle East peace?
FRANK EIKLOR
Orange
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