Letter to the Editor at LCDP, March 16, 2014 Middle East

Printed March16, 2014

 Letter writer misses mark on Middle East

In regard to Jack Belisle’s Feb. 18 letter to the editor where he says: “I’d be willing to listen to Middle East peace advocates if they can explain how Muslims, already on record as wanting to wipe Israel off the map, would ever agree to anything less,” I would like to tell him that the “Muslims, already on record” keeps playing and it is not true. Sen. Carl Levin repeated this saying when he visited the county April 12, 2012, and the local paper printed it again. My response to Levin’s remarks on this saying was printed on April 18, 2012.

An excerpt:

“Senator Levin saying ‘it’s pretty scary’ when the leadership of Iran says Israel should be ‘wiped off the map,’ he is using a saying attributed to Ahmadinejad from 2005, the translation of which has been debated ever since. Prof Juan Cole from U of M, along with others, interprets the translation of those words to be ‘invoking Khomeini’s wish that, someday, somehow, the Israeli government will collapse under its own weight.’ Prescient, I would interpret the words in 2012.”

Israel, indeed, is now an apartheid state, not a democracy. It has demonstrated with its words and deeds that it is not interested in any other country’s security but its own. There is no security for any country until every county cares about the safety of everyone’s children. Israel killed over 326 Palestinian children in 22 days — Dec. 27, 2008, to Jan. 18, 2009 — and called their deaths “acceptable collateral damage.” No ambiguity about the meaning; what is not understandable is that most Americans don’t even know it happened.

If Mr. Belisle is willing to listen, I would be glad to share.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/10/debating-every-last-word-ahmadinejads-wipe-israel-map/43372/

Mares Hirchert

Hartland Township