Cockburn on Aid to Palestinians

In Cockburn’s most recent in a long line of attacks on Israel, he asserts that country has “long sought to block outside contributions to Palestinians as part of their overall objective of making life so wretched that these Arabs will move elsewhere.”

The truth is that not only does Israel not want to make the lives of the Arabs in the territories “wretched,” they have succeeded in improving their lives and standard of living far beyond what it was before Israel’s administration, and better than their brethren in the Arab world. Neighboring Jordan was encouraged to and did send money to the Palestinians in the territories until pressures outside Jordan caused it to stop. Israel has given the right to vote to women, built colleges and provided jobs and income for many thousands of Palestinians in an effort to provide a comfortable standard of living.

The fact that Israel cooperated with our government in providing evidence and documentation that the accused in an American court are members of the terrorist PFLP is to be commended as an example of cooperation between democracies to stop terrorism.

MITCHELL W. EGERS

Los Angeles