Letter to the Editor: Harry Stern
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A View from the Left
I am a longstanding liberal. As such, it is disappointing to witness the fractioning of the Democratic Party’s policies toward Israel. Once it was the darling of the left and progressives. Then, the country’s technology and military progress seemed to cause liberals to forget Israel’s staunch adherence to democratic values, …the only such entity within a thousand miles.
As an American Jew, it is the third rail to criticize Israel’s policies openly. Too often, it is conflated with being anti-Semitic or anti-Israel. I’m not about to enter those murky waters. I am unwavering in my belief that Israel has a right and obligation to defend its citizens—Arab and Jew. But I do have some thoughts to share with my liberal colleagues and political personages.
The removal of settlements from the West Bank to create a Palestinian state is complex—to state the obvious. Iran salivates, wishing for that day when it can covertly arm the “demilitarized” Palestinian state with the same precision missiles Hezbollah has in abundance in Lebanon. U.N. or American peacekeepers? Recall UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force] in Lebanon and its porous protection. The abundance of settlements appears to be a significant obstacle to a desired two-state solution.
The clarions call for Palestinian repatriation for those fleeing the ‘48 war of Independence certainly have merit and should be viewed with gravity. I would also urge the politicians who so openly espouse the absurdity of apartheid in Israel, and the return of land to refugees, to look no further than their own backyard: The unfathomably deplorable conditions of Hispanic American citizens in the South Bronx; the inhumane conditions on Native American reservations, …having had their land stolen; and our African American citizens having their farms stolen in the Mississippi Delta, …by the hundreds, if not thousands, and now suffering the indignity of gerrymandered districts and vast nationwide voter suppression.
Look no further my friends. Then criticize!
Harry Stern, Marietta, East Cobb
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