Bishara’s views on Israel

Re “Why Israel is after me,” Opinion, May 3

If his article is any indication of his usual demeanor throughout his career, I am surprised that Israelis do not view Azmi Bishara with more than nervousness. When he speaks of the right “to resist Israel’s illegal military occupation,” or of Israeli Arabs’ “natural connections to the Arab world,” he uses language common among Israel’s Arab enemies that has long been recognized by Middle East experts as code words for supporting suicide bombing and flooding Israel’s territory with Palestinian refugees so as to cause an irreversible demographic shift, which would leave the likes of Hamas dominant.

I must wonder, if such words are truly representative of Bishara’s opinions, why he felt his correct career path was in the Israeli Knesset.

DAVID FANANY

Vermont South, Australia

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What’s wrong with Jews having their own state? Bishara answers this question most eloquently. It is for the same reason that white South Africans, Hutu Rwandans or fundamentalist Taliban Afghanis should not have their own state. No minority should have to pay the price of discrimination, repression and genocide in order to fulfill the will of the majority.

Bishara expresses the most fundamental values of a free and democratic society, and he should be allowed to live in one without having to become an exile from his own country.

PAUL LARUDEE

El Cerrito

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If one of our leaders in government were found to have passed classified information to Syria or Iran, he would stand trial and either be found innocent or guilty. This is what democracy is all about. Israel is a democratic country. Bishara would have his day in court. He is innocent until proven guilty under Israeli law. Leaving the country and not adhering to a democratic system, of which he was part, certainly does not make this man look innocent. BERNARD HOFFMAN

Los Angeles