Dear Ms. Klein,
I’m sorry to be the one to break the news, but the “occupation” of Gaza that you urged the world to boycott Israel for in your column in “The Guardian”, no longer exists. Yes, Ms. Klein, three years ago, when you may have been too busy to catch up with current events, the Israeli government decided it was tired of hopelessly trying to reach a peace treaty with the fragmented and polarized Palestinian people, and therefore unilaterally pulled out of Gaza and evacuated the settlements in the area. Just like that. It was called “the disengagement”. Perhaps you should google it before you write your next defamatory column.
You may be asking yourself, then, why haven’t Palestinians organized funding and tried to build their own country? Well, that’s because their leaders preferred to spend their time and money shooting at Israel. Not at the Israeli army or settlers, which are no longer there, but at civilians. Astounding, isn’t it?
Actually, while we’re on the subject, this might be a good opportunity to inform you that this was not the first Israeli attempt to leave the Palestinian Authority and reach some kind of peaceful solution, or at least a ceasefire. This has actually been going on for, oh, at least 15 years. In 2000, the Palestinians, then headed by the late Yasser Arafat, were offered 97% of all the territories they claimed were theirs, including parts of East Jerusalem, in exchange for peace. Mr. Arafat’s response to this offer was the outbreak of the second intifada (uprising).
The Palestinian people have suffered greatly. No-one will argue with you about that. But the occupation, which mind you was the result of attacks on the Jewish state of Israel and declarations about wanting to wipe it off the face of the earth, is a very small part of the reason for their suffering.
The Palestinians have been unfortunate enough to be headed time and time again by bloodthirsty leaders of a terrorist bent, ending up with the most extreme group leading them for the past few years: Hamas. This group of people slaughters and lynches Palestinians (yes, Palestinians, this is not a mistake) who dare to even think of opposing them. They ruthlessly execute Palestinians with milder views, who belong to Fatah. Their crimes against Israel, such as sending suicide bombers to restaurants and shopping malls and shooting at a civilian population, are nothing compared with what they do to their own.
Hamas, by the way, are totally unashamed of their nature and openly declare they want to wipe Israel off the map, hopefully with every last Jew in it dead. Perhaps you should google that, too.
The fighting in Gaza is not against the Palestinian civilians, but against their leaders: Hamas. It is not a simple problem to solve, seeing that Hamas has built hideouts and military camps inside hospitals and schools, using Palestinian children as their human shields. But since Hamas has been shooting hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities for years, terrorizing, injuring, and killing innocent men, women and children, the Israeli government understood that it had to make a terrible but inevitable choice: Hamas must be fought and stopped, even though it hides among civilians.
Israel, by the way, has been trying to reach a ceasefire for about a week now, but Hamas keeps refusing. I wonder what would you do in this situation? Just stand there and let them kill you? Is that the solution you urge?
You must be asking yourself: Why does no-one know about all this? How come no other journalist writes about these things?
Well, to this I have a sad but true answer. As sophisticated as Israel is in science and hi-tech, despite our remarkable record in developing advanced products (the Microsoft XP operating system and Intel Pentium 4 chip just to name two), and despite the fact our economists have won the Nobel prize, we are hopeless at PR. I would even go as far as saying we are total failures at explaining our situation to the rest of the world.
You, on the other hand Ms. Klein, seem to be a PR wizard. So cynically devoted to selling your new book, that you would overlook facts, and rush to exhibit extreme ignorance in your defamation-happy column. Would you do anything to identify your new book with popular beliefs, even if they are twisted, anti-Semitic and wrong? That’s really too bad, Ms. Klein, because your words have an impact. Being a Jew yourself, the damage is ten times worse. I don’t recall hearing you call for a boycott of Russia for its actions in Georgia, or of the US for invading Iraq. But why not blame Israel if it can help you sell a few more copies, right?
In your column you bragged about boycotting Israel yourself with your new book. I must admit, Ms. Klein, that I, for one, am an Israeli who is completely uninterested in what a book written by someone of your superficial nature has to say. So yes, let’s throw away the political correctness, and call things by their name. I say, boycott Naomi Klein’s books, because if you don’t, you will be supporting a writer who supports terrorism. It is as simple and true as that.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on January 15, 2009
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. and Lilac Sigan 2009, who permit the full publication of the above article with proper attribution.