Letters to the Editor, June 14, 2004

Would you believe there are actually people who believe Israel won the 1967 war because God was helping?

I tell them the reason why Israel won is because they had a better army . It wasn't a war really because that implies two enemies with more or less equal weaponry whereas the Israeli army had the artillery etc that the Palestinians did not have.

The same people who believe God gave Israel to the Jews (they spell it Isreal - I thought this a spelling mistake but it is intentional) say it is written in the Bible that the land belongs to the Jews (which is not true, read The Promised Land ).

This is what happens when the ignorant attempt to interpret the word of God. I tell them that for example think back to the time of Abraham and his son Isaac etc and to imagine a person who lived back then. This person believes in God (as opposed to being a Heathen) later on his descendant follows Moses and observes the Commandments God gave.

Throughout the centuries more descendants follow Judaism until Jesus comes and later on they become Christian and a few centuries later convert to Islam until we come to the present day when the present day descendant is a Palestinian.

By the Zionist (these people are Christian Zionists ) reasoning I could convert to Judaism and would be entitled to move a Palestinian family out of their home as God gave the land to the Jews.

I tell them Judaism is a religion only, they say I am a Nazi and (wait for it ) a Holocaust Denier. Which Holocaust would that be the one that lasted a few years in the 1940's or the one against the Palestinians that continues to this day?

I have never denied the severity and magnitude of the Holocaust against the Jews and other victims of Hitler's regime. I do wonder though what was going through the minds of those Jews who evicted the Palestinians from their homes in 1948 a mere three years after many had finally escaped Nazi persecution (I guess they watched and learned from the SS).

The Christian Zionists however continue to deny the present day Holocaust saying where are Sharon's gas chambers? Well Hitler didn't have them until much later in his persecution of the Jews etc.

NO BRIEF EXPLANATION

I have no brief explanation regarding the US skewed military policies in Iraq. ... The governing coalition is a combination of traditional social values and centralized corporate economic values. Ignorance in the US chases arrogance --and vice versa.

Only the American people can stop Bush2 and the neocons. The worst news gets from Iraq, the better the chances of John Kerry--a multilateralist on most everything. Bush2 is a CEO, duty driven executive. He is deductive as opposed to thinking inductively. His unilateral actions have hurt a lot of people. Holding on to power, power for power sake, is very important to Republicans.

Things will change only if more people "feel the pain." Just goes to show that fascism in the US is more real than once imagined.

The German Nazis and Bush2 folks have one commonality. Neither seemed/seems to care what others thought. The difference is that the US has a culture where the Bill of Rights is paramount. Nazi Germany did not.

Violence does beget violence. What goes around can, indeed, come around. Thank the proverbial for the French and Germans.

John Rouse, Ballstu