Why do they hate us? asks Yair Lapid on YNet today!!!

The well-known TV talkshow host and journalist, Yair Lapid, (also son of a recent Member of Knesset and Minister) has asked -- with horrifying naivete -- in his column published also in English on Y-Net: "Why do they hate us?" As one answer, I want to publish a letter I received about a week ago, from a friend who lives in the States. It speaks for itself. (I put some of it on the talkback of Y-Net...)

He says:

"Unfortunately, the editor deleted my main point which is: focusing on
Israeli soldiers not Palestinians and Lebanese civilian casualties and
accepting Israel right “to defend itself” without acknowledging the
right of others to defend themselves amounts to selective morality.


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http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=1e809abe-62ac-47b1-9844-9b3204207541

Editorial's Use Of Word 'kidnapping' Is Wrong
To The Editor Of The Day:
Published on 7/18/2006

As a member of an American delegation that interviewed Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and others last February (www.cnionline.org), I am familiar with recent Lebanese grievances.

These include Israeli abduction and imprisonment of several Lebanese. Israel continues to occupy three sectors of Lebanese land overlooking the Litani River, and it frequently violates Lebanese airspace. Israel refuses to share a map of the 140,000 mines it left behind from its 20-year occupation. Several Lebanese civilians have been killed or maimed from these mines. During our visit, Israeli soldiers entered the south and shot and killed a 15-year-old Lebanese shepard. Such incursions are not uncommon.

None of the above were mentioned in the editorial titled “A widening conflict,” published July 14. Your term “kidnapping” is inaccurate. Capturing soldiers who are enforcing a blockade to starve the Gaza population or while patrolling occupied Lebanese territories is legitimate resistance. It is Israel that kidnapped numerous civilians, including one third of the Palestinian cabinet. Israel is holding more
than 9,000 Palestinians, including women and children; many were abducted from their homes, held without due process and are subject to torture.

Since the election of Hamas, Israel has intensified punishment against Palestinians, and after its soldiers were targeted, it killed more than 80 Palestinians and 100 Lebanese civilians. It also destroyed bridges, highways, government ministries, power generators and more.

The Day editorial focused on the captured Israeli soldiers with no mention of Lebanese and Palestinian casualties. It supported Israel's right to “defend itself” without acknowledging that Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians whose territories are occupied have a legitimate right to defend themselves.

Terrorism is targeting civilian noncombatants. Readers are smart enough to determine who is struggling for liberation and who is colonizing and terrorizing.

Hassan Fouda
Groton
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http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=171d8ac1-2e01-4994-925b-f1de3c9c8db4

A Widening Conflict
Clashes between Israelis and militant organizations in Gaza and Lebanon run the risk of another Arab-Israeli war.

By Day Staff Writer

Published on 7/14/2006

The conflict in the Middle East is escalating to an alarming degree with attacks and counterattacks this week between Israeli defense forces and the militant organization Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. This strife follows military clashes between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, opening for Israel a second front and raising the disturbing possibility of another Israeli-Arab war.

The situation is typically complicated. The Israeli military reacted to kidnappings of Israeli soldiers. In the more recent incident, Hezbollah crossed the Lebanese border into Galilee and kidnapped two soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces. Israel responded by sending troops into southern Lebanon, shelling the international airport in Beirut and blockading the Lebanese coast.

President Bush says he supports Israel's right to defend itself, but is calling for restraint. As general and ineffectual as this sounds, it is good advice. The price of freeing several IDF soldiers should not be another outright war in the Middle East. It is one thing for Israel to make a show of force to discourage further aggression by the two militant groups, and another to get drawn into a wider conflict, a response that would not be proportionate to the nature of the crisis.
The clashes harm both sides. Hamas, by its shelling of Israeli targets and kidnapping a soldier, has undone the progress it helped achieve in getting Israel out of Gaza. Hezbollah has, in effect, invited Israeli forces back into southern Lebanon. This is a losing situation for everyone.

This development is a shame both for Hezbollah and for Hamas, which have achieved substantial political stature and credibility in Lebanon and in the Palestinian Authority, respectively. Responsible leaders in both those parties must point out the madness of these latest developments. That there are such leaders is evident in the remarks of Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the PLO and a member of Hamas, in an
op-ed article in the Washington Post this week. Prime Minister Haniyeh underscored the importance of serious and fair negotiations with Israel as the only route out of this quagmire. The Olmert government in Israel also must resist the temptation to expand its military operations and focus on a negotiated settlement. That means negotiating with Hamas.

Israel has made its point about its deterrent capacity in the last several days. Now it needs to concentrate on averting a war.