Letters to the Editor
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‘Roth’s False God’
I am writing in regards to the article “Roth’s False God” (Editorial, August 8, 2006) as well as Tuesday evening’s appearance by Messrs. Stoll and Roth on the “O’Reilly Factor.” Time and time again, I have read, listened, and watched Mr. Roth state that Human Rights Watch has investigators that are capable of cutting through the web of lies and fabrications around human right violations. How ironic then that as of this moment HRW’s Web site still displays one of the recently discredited Reuters’ Qana photos.
Mr. Roth also has stated numerous times that Israel “uses indiscriminate killing” as well as “Israel has declared Lebanon free fire zone.” Yet any reasonable person recognizes that with its tremendous military might, a result of such IDF directives would be tens and maybe even hundreds of thousands of dead Lebanese civilians. Conversely, numerous military experts on CNN, Fox News, and other channels have unequivocally stated that Israel’s military, while obviously possessing the capabilities to carpet bomb suspected and identified Hezbollah strongholds, has decided against this option.
So I must ask: Who are the military specialists at HRW that are qualified to draw these “expert” conclusions? How many terrorist organizations has HRW successfully defeated to make it an expert in establishing criteria regarding what is and what is not appropriate in fighting them? I can only draw one conclusion from all this: HRW is so bent on portraying Israel in a negative light, that it forsakes its own mission.
SEMYON AXELROD
St. Paul, Minnesota
The Kenneth Roth-Avi Bell controversy [“Getting It Straight,” Avi Bell, Opinion, July 25, 2006] misses an essential point. It is not enough to emphasize that Israelis were the victims of unprovoked aggression from Muslim terrorists. In the horrendous catastrophe now unfolding one seldom hears mention of the United Nations solution of almost 60 years ago. This was the Partition Plan of 1948 in which Israel accepted its promised share of the division of the former British Mandate of Palestine, but the Arabs rejected it out of hand and attacked the infant Jewish state from three directions in the hope of destroying it in a quick victory. It did not work out quite that way. And then a second opportunity went down the drain when President Clinton and Prime Minister Barak offered the Palestinians 95% of their demands, plus a foot in Jerusalem. Yasser Arafat spurned it and ordered a new Intifada to wipe out Israel; an objective now repeated by a barking dog in Tehran, Hezbollah’s sponsor and patron. The unspeakable sorrow of the past half century might have been avoided, and, ironically, the probable eventual solution will turn out to be permanent partition borders in any event.
JEROME STARR
Professor Emeritus
School of Visual Arts
New York, N.Y.
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