[1636] in peace2
Re: letter from an israeli student
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mohammad Mahdian)
Thu Apr 11 13:44:33 2002
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 13:43:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mohammad Mahdian <mahdian@theory.lcs.mit.edu>
To: Ryan R Klimczak <klimczak@mit.edu>
cc: peace-announce@mit.edu, <heather@friscobay.com>
In-Reply-To: <200204102110.RAA27715@mitsh23.mit.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0204111126030.19736-100000@anhinga.lcs.mit.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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just a few points about the letter:
(in the following, by "you" i'm referring to the author of the letter, and
those who share his/her viewpoint).
> > It is because we became so upset over upsetting you, dear world, that
> > we decided to leave you-- in a manner of speaking -- and establish a
> > Jewish State. ... And so we decided to come home --to the same
> > homeland from which we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman
> > world that, apparently, we also upset.
"Leave" the world? Come "home"? You sound like you emigrated to a land
with no inhabitants. Are you forgetting that this "homeland" (i.e., the
place where your ancestors had lived 1900 years ago), was also the home of
many others?
> > Moscow is upset and Washington is upset. The Arabs are upset and the
> > gentle Egyptian moderates are upset.
Washington is upset? You sure know that Israel has been the top recipient
of US foreign aids for so many years. A few political gestures doesn't
mean that US is really upset at Israel.
> > Nevertheless, the same oppressed and repressed Palestinians
> > slaughtered hundreds of Jews in Jerusalem, Gaff, Safe and Heron.
> > Indeed, 67 Jews were slaughtered one day in Hebron - in 1929.
If someone commits a crime, it's he/she who should be punished, not others
who share their ethnicity with him/her.
By the way, why do you mention the crimes committed by Palestinians, and
conveniently omit the ones committed by Jews, such as Dr. Goldstein's
massacre in Hebron, the Jewish Irgun terrorist bombings in 1940's, etc.?
If we want to live in a peaceful world, we should stop labeling people by
their race/religion, and start to think of them as human beings. Labeling
a group of people as Arabs, Palestinians, etc., and using parts of history
to justify their oppression is not the solution.
--Mohammad
