Dear Greta Berlin,
It might surprise you, but we have found common ground. You told the Los Angeles Times, ?I was lucky.? You are lucky you are alive to talk about your experience being fired upon by Israeli troops employing rubber bullets and tear gas. They could have killed you and you gasp to the newspaper, ?They shot directly at us.?
If ?they shot directly at us", they must have been well disciplined. You said your leg was grazed and bruised. I?ll bet those soldiers were sorely tempted to aim elsewhere.
Frankly, I don?t know why I should care if they blew your head off. You did not care about injecting yourself into a delicate situation and inflaming an already volatile conflict that has so far claimed 3,200 lives, 800 of whom were Jews. Not only you, but Palestinians and the Israeli soldiers could have been harmed.
Don?t worry. I?m more upset with the Israeli government than with you. You?re not a responsible government official who should know by now to keep you and your loony friends far from Israeli military activities. What you did on July 28, according to the L.A. Times account, was join 200 Palestinians, Israelis and foreign activists who swarmed a portion of the security wall by a Palestinian village near Jenin and dismantled a gate, before the soldiers opened fire. This compels me to pose this question: Why are you people still there? And how did so many of you get so close? Another news account reported that 60 foreign activists were there.
The Israeli government has known for months that Americans like yourself and other foreigners ? foreigners in a sovereign nation, namely Israel ? have been throwing yourselves into situations, interfering with Israeli military activities. The interference is primarily organized by the International Solidarity Movement, a so-called peace group, which does not seem to be quite as passionate about helping Israeli victims of the conflict.
Many of your compatriots have blocked roads, stood in the way of bulldozers and smuggled food to besieged terrorists. This is what we know for sure. The Israeli government even claims that ISM has knowingly harbored terrorists.
At least Palestinians and Israelis who engage in these activities live there and are personally affected. They have to live with the results of these actions long after you have returned home. People like you, Greta, have no rights in Israel. You are not citizens (unless you have dual citizenship). The Israeli government has every right to deport you if you violate its laws. Immigrants in America have faced deportation for commission of petty crimes, and you?re committing crimes that interfere with Israel?s politics.
You identify yourself as a 62-year-old businesswoman from Los Angeles. At your age, I figured you would know better. With a name like Berlin, you may even be Jewish, though I make no judgments about that. You?re no 23-year-old kid, like the late Rachel Corrie, who might be easily impressionable and new to the complexities of world politics - and there is nothing simple about what is transpiring today in Israel.
You may well have legitimate concerns with Israeli policies, but there are political means to address said concerns; means that folks like yourself have never bothered to try. I don?t know what solution you want, but right now you are part of the problem.
It might surprise you, but we have found common ground. You told the Los Angeles Times, ?I was lucky.? You are lucky you are alive to talk about your experience being fired upon by Israeli troops employing rubber bullets and tear gas. They could have killed you and you gasp to the newspaper, ?They shot directly at us.?
If ?they shot directly at us", they must have been well disciplined. You said your leg was grazed and bruised. I?ll bet those soldiers were sorely tempted to aim elsewhere.
Frankly, I don?t know why I should care if they blew your head off. You did not care about injecting yourself into a delicate situation and inflaming an already volatile conflict that has so far claimed 3,200 lives, 800 of whom were Jews. Not only you, but Palestinians and the Israeli soldiers could have been harmed.
Don?t worry. I?m more upset with the Israeli government than with you. You?re not a responsible government official who should know by now to keep you and your loony friends far from Israeli military activities. What you did on July 28, according to the L.A. Times account, was join 200 Palestinians, Israelis and foreign activists who swarmed a portion of the security wall by a Palestinian village near Jenin and dismantled a gate, before the soldiers opened fire. This compels me to pose this question: Why are you people still there? And how did so many of you get so close? Another news account reported that 60 foreign activists were there.
The Israeli government has known for months that Americans like yourself and other foreigners ? foreigners in a sovereign nation, namely Israel ? have been throwing yourselves into situations, interfering with Israeli military activities. The interference is primarily organized by the International Solidarity Movement, a so-called peace group, which does not seem to be quite as passionate about helping Israeli victims of the conflict.
Many of your compatriots have blocked roads, stood in the way of bulldozers and smuggled food to besieged terrorists. This is what we know for sure. The Israeli government even claims that ISM has knowingly harbored terrorists.
At least Palestinians and Israelis who engage in these activities live there and are personally affected. They have to live with the results of these actions long after you have returned home. People like you, Greta, have no rights in Israel. You are not citizens (unless you have dual citizenship). The Israeli government has every right to deport you if you violate its laws. Immigrants in America have faced deportation for commission of petty crimes, and you?re committing crimes that interfere with Israel?s politics.
You identify yourself as a 62-year-old businesswoman from Los Angeles. At your age, I figured you would know better. With a name like Berlin, you may even be Jewish, though I make no judgments about that. You?re no 23-year-old kid, like the late Rachel Corrie, who might be easily impressionable and new to the complexities of world politics - and there is nothing simple about what is transpiring today in Israel.
You may well have legitimate concerns with Israeli policies, but there are political means to address said concerns; means that folks like yourself have never bothered to try. I don?t know what solution you want, but right now you are part of the problem.