|
Response to Greg Sheridan's article in The Australian, 20 December 2007
Dear Editor,
It is refreshing and encouraging to see that there are still some journalists who report based solely on facts, thus upholding their journalistic and ethical integrity. Greg Sheridan’s analysis could not be more accurate (‘Peace impossible without will’ 20/12).
It seems that no matter what Israel does to defend itself it will be subjected to unfair criticism. Over the past many months, Israel has faced almost daily barrages of rockets from Gaza. Despite the fact that Israel has responded in a relatively moderate approach, successfully targeting those involved in building and launching the rockets with minimal civilian casualties, there are still those who criticise Israel’s responsible actions. After all, and as Mr Sheridan asks, which country would not defend itself from such attacks?
Until sufficient international pressure is placed on the entire Palestinian leadership, not just Hamas but also Fatah, to rein in their extremists the situation in that region will not improve much for anyone.
As the Hamas objective is to eliminate Israel, no matter what they claim, there is not much interest on their part to prevent such attacks; the attacks simply serve their purpose.
By contrast, Fatah claims to be genuinely interested in peace with the Jewish State. This seems to contradict the actions carried out by its security officials who have repeatedly been involved in terrorism. Also, only when the official Palestinian textbooks stop indoctrinating Palestinian children to hate not only Israelis but Jews, and when Palestinian maps of the region include Israel, will their claims for peace be taken more seriously.
Sincerely,
Manny Waks
Executive Officer
B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission | 
Antisemitism 