Chomsky on Mideast Conflict

With all due respect to Noam Chomsky (Commentary, Aug. 13) and his extreme left sentiments, he’s in the wrong neighborhood to be seriously decrying the sorry treatment of the Palestinians. It’s one in which the sliver of land called Israel has been attacked by its neighbors in three major wars and continual terrorist actions, causing the deaths of many thousands of Israelis. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were kicked out of their homes in surrounding Muslim countries with no talk of compensation or repatriation.

It is a neighborhood into which Israel is expected to invite more than 4 million militant Jew-haters. Jew-hating is taught in Arabic schools, armed conflict is taught in summer camps, known terrorists are heroes and the dead and maimed results of civilian bombings are themselves blamed for having incited the cataclysm. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, most Jordanians and most Egyptians speak openly (although not to the American press) of their fervent wish and plan for the extermination of Jews from every corner of the region.

Herb Schiff

Culver City

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We need more Americans of stature willing to remind us what is both right and in our own best national interest in the Middle East, the way Chomsky is doing. Hand-wringing statements that we Americans cannot influence events in a positive way in that region are belied by our success in influencing events in Serbia and putting Slobodan Milosevic in jail. Israel is well within our power to influence. All we need is to overcome the influence of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington that prevents our pliant elected representatives from acting in the interest of humanity and the U.S., rather than in support of Israel’s brutality

Thomas Milo Somers

Loma Linda

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Chomsky has been an apologist for Arab attacks on Israel since its founding, deeming the Jews’ presence an extension of Western colonialism. Jews and Israel have every right to be where they are. The West Bank was occupied by Jordan; where was the outcry? Arabs carried out pogroms against Jews in Palestine decades and centuries before Israel was established. There is a Jewish presence in the West Bank by virtue of Israel defending itself against Jordanian attack in 1967. Jordan lost.

Since the establishment of Israel, Arabs have had the opportunity to establish their own independent country but never did because such an action would implicitly recognize the legitimacy of Israel. As for the Palestinians being “alone and defenseless, many barely surviving in miserable camps,” no one kept them in camps. They are free to leave, except that no Arab country wants them. They are kept there solely to be an irritant to Israel. The people of the West Bank have no one to blame except their own leaders for over half a century of hatred leading to their present condition.

Emil Schafer

Riverside