Word: larew
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...John Larew's article, "Israel's Worst Best Friends" (Nov. 29), attacks pro-Israel zealots as so firm in their attachment to Israel that they deny facts, rationalize all violations of morality and gratuitously accuse critics of Israel of being anti-Semitic. As simply as that, Larew has delegitimized all defenders of Israel and has cut short any debate about the realities in the Middle East...
Unfortunately, Larew starts with the assumption that Israel's democracy should imitate America's and any deviation from "the political liberties that we embrace" should lead to an automatic diminishing of American support for Israel. But Israel exists in a completely different geopolitical arena, both internally and externally. How many times in the last 40 years has the United States had to defend itself from an annihilation as Israel has done three times? Does America have a mandatory three-year military draft and military reserves for all men from the age of 21 to 45? Does the United States have...
When Professor of Law Alan Dershowitz attacks public nativity scenes and defends trials without due process, he is not being hypocritical, as Larew suggests, but is recognizing the vast differences between the reality in constitutional America and the reality in embattled Israel. This recognition seems to elude all those who mindlessly swallow all criticism of Israel as obviously correct. A good example of this simplistic belief in the immorality of Israel appears in Larew's article itself. Larew accuses the "Zealot" who tore down an anti-Israel poster of "denial" of the facts determined by the "indisputable photographic record." There...
...Finally, Larew's assumption that Israeli democracy is eroding has no support. If he wants to say that the treatment of West Bank Palestinians is "undemocratic," then I think he would get little argument from any side; the West Bank is under military occupation--a consequence of Jordan's unsuccessful surprise attack during the Six Day War--and as a result does not even pretend to live under the same rules as the Israeli democracy. Many right-wing Israelis would indeed like to rectify this situation by annexing the territories and including the Palestinians in the state, a solution...
...final point; as a matter of basic knowledge, the U.S. does not support Israel solely because it is a democracy or a Jewish state. Israel is a stategic asset of unprecedented proportions. I can provide Larew with military and economic data that will prove this beyond a doubt. Egypt receives nearly the same amount of U.S. foreign aid as Israel, though it shows no signs of any sort of democracy. The administration is currently sending legislation through Congress that will permit the sale of M-1 tanks to Saudi Arabia. Remember, the U.S. granted Iran most-favored nation status under...