Take Action – Write to dispute the cliched anti-Zionist rhetoric in the New Mexican.
The details on writing a letter can be found here, as well as a link to effective letter writing tips.
Background
On April 16 Bill Stewart wrote an inaccurate and inflammatory column on the current Palestinian terrorism in Israel. Santa Fe Middle East Watch sent out a “Take Action” Alert on April 17 asking members to write letters detailing the many errors in Stewart’s column. See that Alert for more details, background, talking points, etc.
On April 27, 2016 The following was printed in the letters to the editor of the New Mexican:
Instability is profitable
Bill Stewart’s column about Palestinian violence identifies it as stemming from disparity between Israel’s relative prosperity and security and Palestine’s relative poverty and insecurity (“What’s fueling Palestinian violence?,” Understanding Your World April 15). Not mentioned is the United States and its support of the illegal settlements and other colonial policies of Israel, even though the U.S. officially claims to want the policies to stop. Every year, the U.S. government gives billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to Israel. This amounts to an enormous subsidy of the U.S. high-tech/weaponry industry. White phosphorous shells that landed on Palestinian children and their homes in Operation Cast Lead, also called The Gaza War, were manufactured by U.S. corporations. Israeli attack helicopters that kill Palestinians are U.S.-made and bought with U.S. dollars. Thus, our monetary handouts to Israel are fungible. Many U.S. corporations are happy with instability in Palestine and elsewhere in the Middle East. Corporations profit.
William Scoular, Santa Fe
There are many errors in this letter:
- The Wealth disparity myth – not clearly stated in Stewart’s column, but extrapolated by Scoular, there is lots of evidence that terrorism is not caused by poverty, wealth disparity, or other forms of economic discrepancies.
- The White phosphorous shell myth – Israel did not intentionally use these anti-personnel shells against Gazan children. As reported elsewhere, “The Israel Defense Forces used white phosphorus in Gaza much like U.S. and Coalition forces did in Afghanistan for smoke camouflage and marking..”
- The settlements are illegal – a common error refuted in many places – a summary can be found here.
- Israeli policies are “colonial” – a hyperbolic word used to garner sympathy for the writer’s position without any evidence of truth to the statement. Israel would be happy to relinquish the West Bank under a negotiated peace settlement according to UN Security Council Resolution 242 which provides for Israel’s security as well.
- US and other corporations are happy to maintain instability in Israel – not a shred of evidence is provided by the writer. Only in his imagination can he prove this. While some are suspicious of corporations in general, and some corporations do profit from arms sales, etc., so, too, do the Palestinians profit from massive handouts from European, Arab, American, and other governments – perhaps with stability and peace these handouts also would end?
We’re sure you can find other faults in this letter. Write a letter to the editor refuting Scoular’s fantasy.