Shooting fish
in a barrel?

[Re: “Stripped to death,” News, Jan. 15] As I was reading Jeff Halper’s fair and balanced take on the situation in Gaza, I was struck by a couple of thoughts regarding his arguments. He says that it’s a “shooting fish in a barrel situation,” which begs the question: how is it that there are still Palestinians alive in Gaza? If a high-tech army like Israel’s really was dealing with such a situation, you’d think it would’ve been over last week, but no, I wonder why, could it possibly be that maybe, just maybe, they’re NOT trying to kill everyone? Just a thought Jeff, you might want to mull that one over...

Another thing, and this is the important one. And I quote: “The dilemma a lot of Palestinians have is that they don’t like Hamas, but they’re the only show in town right now as far as resisting Israel is concerned.” He uses the word “resist.” Let’s just think about that for a second. A couple of ideas to help: Israel is not going anywhere, and no matter how much the Mirror wishes it would just disappear or be blown up or whatever, it’s not going to happen. Many Arab countries have accepted this and there is at least the beginning of a consensus that a two state solution is the way to go.

Here’s another one: instead of resisting the Israelis, perhaps the Palestinians should try working with them, perhaps all these activists should try that. War is won by fighting but peace happens by dialogue. I have read many stories in the news (not enough though) about initiatives by ordinary Palestinians and ordinary Israelis, people who have experienced the situation for real, to reconcile the two cultures and fix this situation. It’s not by waging war or annihilating anyone that anything will be resolved.

That being said, if the rhetoric of the anti-Israel lobby in the West is any indication, dialogue is not going to happen, and of course it’s Israel’s fault because they have an army but they shouldn’t use it to protect themselves, no, they should wait and wait and wait until Hamas finally learns how to fucking aim their rockets, would that be a fair trade? This lobby not only gives Hamas the legitimacy they crave, but they force Israel into even more of a corner, forced to justify defending themselves from a proxy of Iran.

A cursory look at history shows that when at war, anything goes, you use everything you can. Apparently the only exception to this in the entire history of humanity is Israel. As for your statement that hiding among civilian populations is the definition of guerrilla tactics, well, then clearly Hamas sucks at it. If Israel can kill so many of them, maybe they should try new tactics, I have an idea, it’s called “negotiation.”

>>Rodney Johnson

[Re: “Stripped to death,” News, Jan. 15] Attending a lecture at McGill by Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper, I learned that university authorities had, only hours before, suddenly threatened to ban the talk unless organizers paid for several extra security guards. This, after Halper’s scheduled speech of the following day had to be moved elsewhere when the original venue—the Jewish Gelber Centre—abruptly shut its doors. What gives?

True, Jeff Halper is a harsh critic of Israel. He lambastes its four-decade long policy of West Bank settlement expansion, deliberately designed to thwart the creation of that Palestinian state Israel likes to claims it supports. 

He documents the transformation of Gaza into a vast laboratory, where Israel can with total impunity test the latest counter-insurgency techniques on a captive population of 1.5 million human guinea pigs. He exposes the charade of Israeli “democracy” where Arab political parties must sign pledges to uphold the Jewish character of the state, and can still be arbitrarily disqualified—as two of them recently were.  

This is indeed a damning indictment. But it is no harsher than the customary denunciations by the prophets and visionaries of biblical times who vociferously decried the transgressions of their people—and who were just as routinely vilified and even exiled by the official temple priesthood whose role was to serve the established order and safeguard their own privileged positions.

Unable to banish Jewish dissidents to the desert, contemporary state apologists instead resort to censorship and smears. With clockwork predictability, the Zionist group called “Canadian Institute for Jewish Research” accused Halper of wanting Israel’s “annihilation”—in a letter prominently displayed by their ideological soulmates, the Asper-owned Montreal Gazette.

How sad that the self-described “leaders” of today’s organized Jewish community choose to assume the role of the temple priesthood instead of trying to emulate the far more noble prophetic tradition. History will judge these commissars with the contempt they deserve, for they are as distant in spirit to that great Judaic tradition as they are in chronological time. 

Israel’s stomach-turning carnage in Gaza has provoked unprecedented public outrage. Could the frantic surge by Israel-worshippers in their campaign of intimidation perhaps reflect their growing realization that the emperor not only lost his clothes, but his ugliness is impossible to hide?

>>Shirley Groves

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