The problem
with Palestinevv

[Re: “Give peace a chance,” Letters, Jan. 8] Even as Palestinian children were blown to pieces and UN schools crowded with civilians demolished by Israeli missiles, the pervasive Hasbara machine continued relentlessly to blame the victims and Hamas. “They-hide-among-civilians” is a familiar mantra tirelessly invoked, though it remains the very definition of guerrilla warfare as practised from the ANC to WWII resistance fighters. 

If Palestinians deserve to be blamed, it goes back to an earlier time when they naively believed that imperial Britain would honour its promise of independence if Arabs revolted against their Ottoman overlords. Palestinians likewise merit blame for ignoring the depth of colonial contempt for native populations, despite its blunt articulation.

“I do not agree that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time,” Winston Churchill explained in 1937. Citing the aboriginals of America and the blacks of Australia, he continued, “I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, a more worldly-wise race, has come and taken their place.”

With impudent temerity, Palestinians disregarded their rung in the hierarchy of races, as they did recently by insisting their democratic elections be respected even if the outcome displeased Israel.

Still, not every Palestinian grievance is self-inflicted. While Jews suffered two millennia of systemic persecution in Christian Europe, Jews in the vast Islamic world co-existed peacefully for centuries before the creation of modern Israel. The seeds of conflict were only sown in the 1880’s when European anti-Semitism gave birth to a Zionist movement that sought to recreate a Jewish homeland in an already populated Palestine. 

Arab hostility to waves of European colonizers with ambitious territorial designs was hardly irrational. Neither was Palestinian anger at the breathless hypocrisy of Western countries that shut their borders to Jewish refugees fleeing the Third Reich but magnanimously voted at the UN to dismember Palestine for a Jewish state. For decades, Palestinians adamantly refused to recognize Israel, incredulous the international community was asking them not only to renounce their homeland but also to grant legitimacy to the country that usurped it.

Today, the overwhelming majority of Palestinians accept a two-state solution, and Hamas has repeatedly offered a long-term ceasefire if Israel complied with international law by withdrawing from the 67 territories. Israel instead continues to expand illegal settlements on these areas and effectively aborts the birth of a viable Palestinian state.

That is at the root of Palestinian desperation. Israel must choose between occupation or peace. It will never have both.

>>John Dirlik

Republicans
vs. rentboys

[Re: “Kiss kiss bang bang” and “Joining the nerd herd,” film, Jan. 8] I want to congratulate Matthew Hays. He wrote two whole articles in the Mirror without mentioning Republicans even once.

Hays should stick to what he does best: write about two-bit rentboys who brag about how many televisions they own.

>>Martin Schrick

Protest for change

[Re: “Northern fights,” News, Jan. 8] It’s good to see a publication picking up on the positive things happening in Montreal North. Since the riots last fall, and for a long time before that, that area of the city was too often seen and written about in a bad light. It’s good to see groups like Montréal-Nord Républik speaking out about last year’s violence and protests and working toward future change.

>>Steve Dugas

Virtual Mirror

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