Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2008, pages 55-56

Other People's Mail

Compiled by Kate Hilmy and Delinda Hanley

America’s Test of Crime

To the Arab News, Feb. 15, 2008

The car bombing assassination of Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Imad Mughniyeh has been greeted with public expressions of delight by the American government. Coming on the eve of the third anniversary of the car-bombing assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, this reaction offers evidence, if any were needed, that the United States does not object to car-bombing assassinations as a matter of principle. As with all other aspects  of American foreign policy, notably including America’s use of the epithet “terrorist,” it is not the nature of the act that matters but, rather, who is doing it to whom.

John V. Whitbeck, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

In War, We Become Like Enemy

To the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Feb. 11, 2008

CIA Director Michael Hayden’s admission that the United States has engaged in the torture practice of waterboarding shows the true danger of going to war. The danger is not in losing the war, but in becoming like your enemy in order to win it.

Bruce Ellestad, Lopez Island, WA

Torture and the Gunpowder Plot

To The Independent, Feb. 8, 2008

Guy Fawkes is a fascinating example to choose to justify torture. Captured only after the bomb had been discovered, he was tortured as one of the few “filthy foreigners” involved in a plot that was an English creation.

That bomb, like so many others, was discovered because some of those involved suffered moral qualms about those who would be killed, and wrote to warn them. I can’t think of any historical examples of torture actually foiling a bomb attack.

The problem with arguing for the morality of torture is that it relies on the idea that any act can be justified if it would help prevent a greater evil. Which is more or less exactly the reasoning behind most terrorist attacks. If torture is moral, then so is terrorism.

Hanbury Hampden-Turner, London, UK

Increase Spending on Diplomacy

To The Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 12, 2008

Regarding your Feb. 2 editorial, “More ‘troops’ for U.S. diplomacy”: The editorial supports the apparent shift in United States policy and acknowledges that money for development and preventive diplomacy will provide more promise for national security and world peace than our current primary dependence on military might.

Currently the budget for all U.S. engagement in the world includes $486 billion for the military and only $29 billion for diplomacy and development.

In addition to increasing our diplomatic corps, there are at least three specific, cost-effective programs that would significantly shift this imbalance.

First, we could fully fund and pay our arrears to the United Nations.

Second, legislation now in Congress would bolster what Defense Secretary Robert Gates has referred to as “civilian instruments of national security”: the use of civilian corps to address emergency and humanitarian needs.

Third, we could require and fund conflict-prevention training for our foreign-service staff, embassy personnel, USAID, and military personnel.

We could easily pay for these programs by using some of the $60 billion the military now spends on outdated weapons systems or the $2 billion a week spent on the Iraq war. True 21st-century national security depends on this shift.

Thomas C. Ewell, Clinton, WA

War’s True Casualties

To The Washington Post, Feb. 18, 2008

I was appalled to read of the abysmal medical conditions in Iraq [“For Broken Iraqis, a Haven of Healing; Children Shattered by War Find Care, Kindness in Jordan”].

If the goal of the U.S. government is to provide democracy for Iraqi and other Middle Eastern civilians, then it has the responsibility to build a foundation for democracy by providing them with proper medical care. Judging from this article, this issue has not been adequately addressed.

Although nongovernmental organizations such as Doctors Without Borders have val­iantly contributed to alleviating this problem, the government’s efforts, perhaps through the use of the military, should increase. After all, the true casualties of any war are civilians and the societies they belong to.

Kathleen Ferraren, Sterling, VA

Test of Democracy

To the San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 5, 2008

If someone takes $100 from you and offers to give you back $1, do you: 1) Vote for this “economic stimulus.” 2) Know you are being swindled.

If your government borrows trillions from two of the most oppressive and heavily armed countries in the world to invade and occupy a country that has no weapons of mass destruction, only oil, do you: 1) Think that this promotes democracy. 2) Know that democracy is for sale.

Karen Leonard, Willits, CA

Politics and Support for Israel

To The New York Times, Feb. 16, 2008

I would advise against making the assumption that Israel-related issues are the be-all and end-all for Jewish-American voters.

Health care, Iraq, terrorism, the economy, Darfur, illegal immigration—why presume that American Jews across the United States, and of all age demographics, are going to set aside these issues and make their choice on who should be the next president based solely on who will be “good for Israel”?

Will all African-Americans vote for Barack Obama, all women for Hillary Rodham Clinton and all evangelical Christians for Mike Huckabee?

Maybe tribal politics are indeed the case, but that kind of assumption sells American Jewish voters short.

Benjamin Orbach, Jerusalem, Israel

Looking for Courage

To the San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 24, 2008

One of the longest lasting humanitarian disasters is the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Isn’t it time that this subject be addressed by the media, our elected officials and our presidential candidates without fear of their being labeled anti-Semitic? The candidate who has the courage to address this issue will have my vote.

Shirley Bates, San Francisco, CA

Too Soon to Say Israel Has “Won”

To The New York Times, Feb. 16, 2008

Daniel Gavron asks why it is, though Israel is about to turn 60, that we Jews aren’t able to see this achievement as a genuine success and accomplishment.

Well, I can tell you why I won’t be celebrating this coming May. Until my Palestinian Israeli friends inside the Green Line, citizens of the State of Israel, are treated equally with their Jewish brethren and not as if they are outsiders or the enemy, I have nothing to celebrate. Only when Israel becomes a democracy in the truest sense of the word will the Zionist dream be a reality.

Steven C. Dinero, Philadelphia, PA

Throw Olmert Out

To the International Herald Tribune, Feb. 7, 2008

I disagree with Uri Dromi’s conclusions (“Don’t dump Olmert”). It is imperative that there be an example of moral leadership here in Israel. The Winograd Commission gave Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a failing grade for the way he initiated and conducted the 2006 Lebanon war, including his inability to protect the northern cities of Israel.

After our president was accused of sexual harassment, after our treasury minister was accused of filling his personal coffers with public funds, and after members of parliament lied about advanced degrees, we are sorely in need of a strengthening of the national moral backbone.

If Olmert resigned there would be a collective sigh of relief. The peace process is going at a snail’s pace now. Olmert is incapable of carrying out the promises he so loudly proclaimed in Annapolis.

Honey Stollman, Jerusalem, Israel

Palestinian Women Building Hope

To the International Herald Tribune, Feb. 4, 2008

Fida Qishta (“Light through the wall,” Jan. 31) is exemplary of many Palestinian women I have encountered. Despite grievous loss, living conditions that are intolerable by any standard and relentless hardships enough to drive anyone mad, she continues to strive to offer children hope for the future. The dedication of the people in Gaza and elsewhere, including the many Palestinian refugee camps, is amazing.

Associations work to guarantee health care, education, professional training, cultural activities, organized sports—the list is a long one indeed. But the people’s needs are great. When your home has been destroyed, when your child is sick, when prospects for education and employment are dim at best, help from any quarter is welcome.

In this context, it is no surprise that some Palestinians support Hamas, because the party has a strong network of social aid. Why aren’t wealthy nations doing more to support secular, grass-roots initiatives?

Sad to say, I do not share Qishta’s generous belief that “if ordinary people in the U.S. and Eur ope knew” more about Palestinians, they would be more compassionate. Some don’t care to know, some know and just don’t care, and still others find advantage in the current state of affairs.

I do agree, however, that peace will come to the Middle East only when justice is achieved. Daniel Barenboim is perhaps the most eloquent international figure seeking peace and justice in the region; let us also praise women who are working to bring peace and justice to Palestine, one playground, one schoolroom, one clinic at a time.

Grace Coston, Bagnolet, France

Gaza Sanctions Exact Unjust Toll

To The Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 23, 2008

Regarding “Fertilizer, frustration fuel Gaza’s rockets”: The article paid primary attention to fertilizer and little to frustration. This neglect appears not unusual as the humanitarian crisis emerging in Gaza seems to garner little international concern. Now that Gaza’s main power plant began shutting down last Sunday, frustration will only further fuel unrest.

Frustration is found in the fact that a majority of Gazans, roughly two-thirds, are feebly finding their way on $2 a day or less. Frustration finds fertile soil when nearly 75 percent of Gaza’s factories have closed their doors or function at an unprofitable 20 percent of capacity. Frustration mounts when unfettered travel is unfeasible and economic boycotts make import and export impossible. That is frustration. That is what is fueling and fomenting the conflict. The objective of the economic boycott—fostered, in part, by the Americans—is to choke Gaza until she cries for mercy. This is hardly ethical policymaking.

As similar sanctions on Iraq fell hardest on civilians, so, too, will this boycott’s burden be felt by Gaza’s innocent. Not only do sanctions make military conflict more likely, they are invariably inhumane. The world must focus its efforts to save Gaza, not starve it.

Michael Shank, Arlington, VA

Rep. Tom Lantos’ Legacy

To the San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 13, 2008

“To initiate a war of aggression...is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” So wrote Justice Robert Jackson, chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

The Chronicle should know better than to headline its Rep. Tom Lantos obituary “...defender of oppressed worldwide.” Perhaps the kindest thing one can say about Lantos is that perhaps he was so damaged by his experiences during the German occupation of Hungary that afterward he could not hear the cries of those who suffer under the many and continuing aggressive wars and military occupations by the United States and Israel.

Kenneth E. Scudder, San Francisco, CA

Welcomed in Iran

To The New York Times, Feb. 19, 2008

Thank you for “Warmth for Americans in Once Hostile Tehran.” Having recently returned from a two-week, five-city tour of Iran, I can attest to the fact that the Iranian people are warm to Americans, not only in Tehran, but also in Shiraz, Esfahan, Kashan and even in the conservative religious city of Qom.

I was often approached by strangers asking me where I was from. When I replied the United States, there was usually a look of surprise—which was always followed immediately by “You are welcomed here,” which was often followed by “We don’t like your president, or his policies, but we do like the American people.”

I find it ironic that having traveled extensively in Muslim countries, it was in the “axis of evil” that I found myself most welcomed as an American.

Doug Hostetter, Valley Cottage, NY