Divestment supports terror Israel has asked one
thing of its neighbors: to be left alone. To be accepted. That’s
it. Instead, the Arab countries have tried to destroy it year after
year. How is Israel supposed to defend itself? It offered Yasser
Arafat the Gaza Strip, 95 percent of the West Bank, and almost all
of Jerusalem. How did he respond? Not with a counter offer, but by
bombing civilians. Divest and support terrorists.
Bob Sisson
Long Beach, CA
Show consistency in divestment policies Whoever
wants to divest from Israel (“UC must respect human rights,
divest,” July 8, 2002) must first divest from the source of
crimes against humanity. According to Amnesty International, it is
the organizations supporting homicide bombers who are guilty of
crimes against humanity. For consistency’s sake, the
university must immediately divest itself of all petrochemical
companies, since they all do business with Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
Iran, and Lybia, all of which have channeled funding and encouraged
and supported such acts of inhumanity. If only no one would buy
gasoline or diesel, there would be no money for these criminals,
and the Israelis will feel safe enough to conclude the negotiations
for a final settlement.
Rabbi Norbert Weinberg
Los Angeles, CA
Bombings a far cry from occupation In war, the
first casualty is often truth, and there has been growing and
rampant misinformation about the Middle East. Although it is clear
all parties involved have their own political agendas, it is much
less clear that all these agendas are morally equivalent. To
morally equate the “occupation” of the West Bank with
the exploitation of young adults and children with explosives and
nails strapped to themselves as suicide bombers is difficult to
accept. In Israel’s fight against suicide bombings, security
measures against Palestinians have been severe, and have at times
killed innocent civilians. But these killings, unfortunate as
they are, have been unintentional and not specifically targeted
against civilians. In addition, the poor living conditions in the
West Bank have been at least partially due to the Palestinians
themselves, and not merely from the Israeli
“occupation”. Suicide bombings are like a contagious
disease, and pressuring Israel economically will only spread this
disease. If sanctions such as those suggested in the July 8
editorial “UC must respect human rights, divest”
ultimately succeed, if Israel’s economy collapses or gives
into terrorist actions, what does that bode for future generations?
What about future downtrodden Palestinian groups within a
post-terrorist society who feel they are unjustly treated? Will
they have the right to re-introduce suicide bombings or other
terrorist acts directed against innocent civilians to again
destabilize their society and achieve their new objectives? The
precedent will have been set for a vicious killing cycle targeted
again and again against innocent civilians. The only way to stop
this is for terrorism to cease.
Dr. Peter Katona
UCLA School of Medicine