Israel and Human-Rights Violations

Thank you for your critical editorial of Israel. Your characterization of Israeli human-rights abuses as “soul destroying brutalization” cannot be more accurate. However, there are two important points that must be addressed regarding the State Department report.

The first is that the Israeli human rights abuses are nothing new. This has been going on for more than 20 years. What’s new is that these abuses have substantially increased in the last year.

Now to my second point. It is OK to criticize human-rights violations committed by Israel. What is most important, however, is what action should we take to stop this brutalization? What is distressing is the unquestionable “friendship” between Israel and the United States. How on Earth do we expect our criticism to be taken seriously while we continue financing these abuses? Who are we kidding but ourselves?

If the State Department and the U.S. government are to appear serious about human rights in Israel, we must couple our words with actions. A good point to start is by trimming down the $3-plus billion we give Israel annually. At least until the Israelis can produce a half-way moral leadership that slightly share our values.

SAMI M. ODEH

Orange