Dear Cheryl,
      As an historian who has beaten his head against the wall trying to relate the real history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to American victims of a well-organized, and financed, propaganda campaign in favor of a radical Israeli stance, I want to tell you how much I appreciate your May 9th response to the e-mails from some of those same victims. it is gratifying to see that someone else is willing to withstand the ire of Zionist extremists in the attempt to bring peace to the Middle East. I was especially pleased by your accurate assertions, now substantiated by Israeli historians such as Benny Morris, that the Palestinians did not leave their homes voluntarily in 1948. they were, in fact, driven out at gunpoint by the Israelis who then fashioned the monstrous lie to justify their annexation of land that in no sense could be considered theirs. exposing the myth of the Barak deal also resonates with me. thanks so much.
      I have long assailed the "NY Times," the "Washington Post," and the major networks, et al., for their incredible sins of omission, as well as commission, concerning the situation in the region, and have repeatedly observed to them that a problem that is not accurately defined cannot be resolved.
      A couple of things that should be added to your argument follow:
      1) You talk about knowing Arafat's past as a terrorist, but you should also inform your readers of Sharon's, Began's, Peres', and Shamir's past as operatives of Irgun, the Stern gang, and Haganah, all terrorist groups who wreaked havoc in Palestine during the 1940s when Israel was seeking to establish the Jewish state. Sharon didn't seem to have a problem with this strategy when he was doing it to Palestinians and British subjects. Remember the bombing of the King David hotel? It was just one of many atrocities committed by these men who later went on to lead their new country.
      2) Ask your readers to consider the following hypothetical scenario: the Slobovians come in, take over the U.S., throw you and your readers out of your homes, force you into ghettos, relegate you to poverty, and allow you only the most menial and degrading choice of occupations. Meanwhile, they have promoted immigration of Slobovians into the U.S. and have given them your property. they treat you like "niggers" and subject you to all manner of humiliation and degradation. They have all the power, they control the media, and the economy. how would you and your readers fight back?
      I think that you would respond the same way I would, and that the Palestinians and other oppressed people throughout history have- you would become freedom fighters (terrorists to those who wield oppressive power) who consider all Slobovians, political, military, and civilian, as enemies,(as even the U.S. and her allies have done when at war, claiming that civilians who support a government we are at war with are legitimate targets). You would attempt to destroy them in any way you could. Contrary to the propaganda of the U.S. government, and its Euro lackeys, terrorism is a legitimate means of waging war against an overpowering oppressor. the American colonists certainly thought so, anyway. (do a little research into the revolutionary years, paying special attention to the "regulators" of the southern colonies.)
      Finally, consider this: the Jews of the world have been the victims of often brutal discrimination and exclusion. but, more exclusion is not the way to solve the problem. Instead of founding an exclusive Jewish state, they should have formed an all-inclusive state where the rights of all humans were zealously protected. let's face it. the Zionists attempts to form and defend their exclusive Jewish state have turned many of them into their worst enemies = fascists."

  —H.H. McCool
Signal Mt, TN

      "You can call me anything you like. Call me a monster or a murderer. ... Better a live Judeo-Nazi than a dead saint. Even if you prove to me that the present war in Lebanon is a dirty immoral war, I don't care. Even if Galilee is shelled again by Katyushas in a year's time, I don't really care. We shall start another war, kill and destroy more and more, until they will have had enough. Let them tremble, let them call us a mad state. Let them understand that we are a wild country, dangerous to our surroundings, not normal, that we might go crazy if one of our children is murdered, just one! If anyone even raises his hand against us we'll take away half his land and burn the other half, including the oil. We might use nuclear arms. Even today I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us. ... And I don't mind if after the job is done you put me in front of a Nuremberg Trial and then jail me for life. Hang me if you want, as a war criminal. "What you don't understand is that the dirty work of Zionism is not finished yet, far from it."

  —Ariel Sharon
Dec. 17, 1982