One God, in Conflict
Sally Bahous (letter, Oct. 14) mentions that her Palestinian mother told her that “she could forgive the Zionists for the killing of her children . . . but she could never forgive the Zionists for turning Palestinians into fighters.” These words are amazingly similar to those of a Jewish grandmother named Golda Meir (former prime minister of Israel): “We may someday forgive the Arabs for killing our children, but we will never forgive them for compelling us to kill some of their children.”
Recently I have also read Islamic scholars, quoting from the Koran, saying that whoever kills one person, it is as if he had killed the entire world. This is almost identical to a Judaic saying. Does this mean that decent people in both religions independently reach the same positive conclusions?
Yona Sabar
Professor, Dept. of Near Eastern
Languages and Cultures, UCLA
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