Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘Obama and Israel’
I am pleased that you pointed out some of the statements of general support for Israel’s security that Senator Obama has made [Editorial, “Obama and Israel,” January 9, 2008].
But it remains less satisfying that Mr. Obama has made no specific comments about the need for the president of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to arrest terrorists, outlaw terrorist groups, and confiscate illegal weapons, as required in the Roadmap agreements that he signed.
Mr. Obama also never mentions the need for Mr. Abbas to end the incitement to murder and hatred against Jews in the Palestinians’ schoolbooks, press, and speeches, and to accept Israel as a Jewish state. Only last week, Mr. Abbas’ own Fatah party poster, commemorating its 43rd anniversary, shows all of Israel covered with an Arab kaffiyeh alongside a Kalyshnakov rifle and a picture of arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat.
You also fail to mention Mr. Obama’s repeated use of the phrase “cycle of violence” that implies moral equivalence between each side’s use of force.
That phrase ignores the fact that Israeli force is used only to respond to Palestinian Arab violence in an attempt to stop it. One also remembers Mr. Obama’s claim that “no one has suffered more than the Palestinians.” Later Mr. Obama said he meant that was due to bad Palestinian leadership. But the Palestinians elected Hamas, and polls show they support Israel’s destruction and suicide bombings. They want this leadership.
MORTON KLEIN
National President
Zionist Organization of America
New York, N.Y.
Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, by facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.
