Opinion | Letter to the Editor
To the Editor: Modern day plagues
April 15, 2009 - 11:00pmTo the Editor:
Re: “A Passover Message Re: Resistance,” Opinion, April 14.
In her Tuesday column, the author attempted to deliver a Passover message in response to Palestinian resistance in Gaza. However, with the exception of the snide comments in her conclusion, the column passes over the entire story and meaning of Passover.
For those who do not know the story of Passover, here is the Readers’ Digest version: The Jews were slaves in Egypt and G-d told Moses to ask Pharaoh to free the Jews. Moses went and warned Pharaoh what would happen should he not choose the path of peace. With each plague G-d sent, Moses went back to Pharaoh, but repeatedly Pharaoh refused peace.
Similarly, Israel has repeatedly asked for peace from its neighbors, particularly those living in the Gaza strip. When peace is refused and Israel continues to be attacked, Israel and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) send text messages, make phone calls and drop leaflets warning Gaza residents before they take any action. On the other side of the border, Palestinians continue to send hoards of bombs into areas populated by Israeli civilians. These create modern day plagues, which Israelis must bear every day. There is no warning about these attacks; there are certainly no plea for peace or requests for negotiations beforehand.
Perhaps it is not the Israelis who need a history lesson after all.
Samantha Berg ’09
I find it amazing how the
I find it amazing how the IDF sends text messages and leaflets, only trying to get the Palestinians in Gaza to accept peace, while the evil Palestinians hoard all the weapons with no intent other than to avoid any possibility of ever getting their own country and, especially in Gaza, living in what Creed would call "their own prison." I mean, it makes sense really. If I had the opportunity to have snipers shoot at me whenever they felt like it, to have my house taken over for "military reasons" and possibly defecate in it, or to have sonic booms created over the city in the middle of the night to scare people, I would jump at the chance. I mean, there could be no other reason they would feel the need to resist a foreign occupation which has left Gaza with an unemployment rate above 80% and no ability to import any sort of goods to even kick start an economy. Also, the IDF side really makes sense too. With all the Palestinians weapons, they were able to kill 12 Israelis in the last conflict (13 died, but one was from friendly fire), while the text messages and leaflets which the IDF employed killed over 1400 people. Should I be worried that my blackberry might be a weapon of mass destruction? Is quarter-carding a war crime? With that kind of casualty rate, I wouldn't be surprised to see such changes in the Geneva conventions come about.