I am surprised that the Cortez Journal published a guest editorial that was plagiarized. I am referring to the one headlined “Gaza conflict offers stunning example of moral clarity” (Journal, July 18) supposedly by someone named Charles Krauthammer. It was quite obviously written by Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu says Israel is under attack and must defend itself. American and European news media parrot the message.
The numbers in that region tell quite a different story — numbers of native Arabs pushed out and prevented from returning to their land, homes and whole villages demolished, acres of land stolen by the government and settlers, gallons of water taken from Palestinian wells; numbers of bullets fired, bombs dropped, missiles fired, well armed and armored soldiers, tanks, jet bombers and attack helicopters; numbers of men, women and children going about their daily lives killed or injured; numbers of miles of the Apartheid Wall to keep Palestinians out of their former lands; numbers of American dollars. It goes on and on.
Sounds like a siege to me. Sounds like good reasons to resist and try to fight back. The numbers suggest this reality: an immoral 66 year and continuing attack by Israeli Jews on the Arab natives of Palestine, not just of Gaza, aided and abetted by our tax dollars and our politicians. Does one group of people have the moral right to do this to another group of people?
Our newspapers should not publish the propaganda of any nation without labeling it as such. Better yet, we should expect and get accurate, complete unbiased reporting.
Visit the Cortez Public Library. It has some well researched books about the conflict. Read Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel by Jewish American journalist Max Blumenthal. Or, Citizen Strangers by American historian Shira Robinson.
Israeli University of Tel Aviv history professor Shlomo Sand has two books there also. And then there is the Internet.
Morgan Allsup
Cortez