Monday, March 02, 2009

Letter to Editor:Rabbi responds to CCSU speaker re Israel

To the Editor,

Certainly no one can fault Scott Whipple for reporting on what happened at CCSU when Norman Finkelstein spoke.

Unfortunately, such an evening is simply the result of years of anti-Israeli brainwashing perpetrated by Professor Norton Mezvinsky on the CCSU campus.

Finkelstein is one of those Jews who have made a living finding sympathy for every oppressed group but his own people in Israel.

The facts: Israel evacuated Gaza as a gesture of peace to the Palestinians.

Instead of building a productive civilization, Hamas - whose charter calls to this day for the violent overthrow of Israel - used Gaza as a launching ground for terror. Why should 9-year-old children in the Israeli near-to Gaza-town of Sderot still wet their beds except that they are traumatized by the barrage of terrorist rockets launched on that town from Gaza.

Why should their playgrounds be bomb shelters in disguise?

Let us be clear: if Mexico launched such frontal attacks on the United States, this nation would respond with all force necessary to quell the threat to the life and safety of its citizens.

Israel has done what any country would do. When an enemy invades, we don't count how many rockets they launched and limit ourselves to the same number. We do what we must to stop the terror and stop the violence.

Finkelstein's speech is a sad joke delivered to an Amen chorus carefully cultivated through years of Mezvinsky's teachings.

No one who knows the CCSU culture would expect different.

Israel stands - and has always stood - ready at any time to negotiate a lasting peace and resulting land exchange with its Palestinian neighbors.

Yes, Israel is still willing to give back most of the land conquered when her neighbors invaded and attempted to in the worlds of Egypt's late President Gamal Abdul Nasser: "Push Israel into the sea.Š

But as Israel's late and great Foreign Minister, Abba Eban once pointed out: Israel's enemies can negotiate, and Israel will respond in kind or they can shoot at Israel, and she must respond in kind. But let no one expect Israel to make concessions for peace while her enemies continue to shoot with the aim of wiping her off the face of the earth -just as they did in 1947, just as they did in 1967, just as they did in 1973, and just as they have unceasingly continued to do until this day.

Rabbi Stephen Fuchs
D. Min., DD, Senior Rabbi
Congregation Beth Israel

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well said, Rabbi!