Dear Editor,
In our society there are good and decent people on opposite sides of a very divisive issue: Israel/Palestine. The reason the issue is so divisive is that the mass media WRONGLY tell us that ordinary Palestinians and ordinary Israeli Jews have diametrically opposite interests. We're told that the only two possible positions are support for Palestinians, which means going against the welfare of Jews, or support for ordinary Israeli Jews, which means going against the welfare of ordinary Palestinians. I seek friendship, not animosity, between these groups of good and decent people, and the way I do that is by telling the truth about this conflict in the Middle East.
Former Harvard University President, Lawrence Summers, said (as reported by the Harvard Crimson 9/19/2002) that calls for the University to divest from Israel and a Harvard student group’s fundraising activities are examples of developments on campus in the last year that are "anti-Semitic in their effect if not in their intent." Here's why Summers is wrong.
The premise on which Summers's assertion rests is false.The premise is that the Israeli government's violence against Palestinians is for the purpose of making Jews safe. Were this premise true, then the calls for the University to divest from Israel (and in general all of the other current anti-Zionist opposition to Israel's actions against Palestinians) would be opposed to that which is done to make Jews safe, and would therefore indeed be antisemitic in effect if not intent. But the premise is not true.
The true purpose of Israeli violence against Palestinians is not to make Jews safe; it is to make Palestinians so angry at Israel that Israel's billionaire ruling upper class can portray Palestinians to ordinary Israeli Jews as a frightening bogeyman enemy from which the Israeli government purports to protect Jews; this is how the Israeli upper class controls and gets away with horribly oppressing working class Israeli Jews to make the billionaires richer. It has nothing to do with making Jews safe. This is shown to be the case with overwhelming evidence in the article, "Israel's Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians," [https://www.pdrboston.org/israel-s-government-attacks-jews-to or also tinyurl.com/2aae6fa6 ] which I hope you will read.
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Here is a 180 word version; a good subject line might be "Israeli Government Violence Is Not About Making Jews Safe".
Good and decent people on both sides of the Israel/Palestine issue are being pitted against each other because of a false understanding of the conflict that says the safety of Jews requires Israeli government violence against Palestinians. This is not only a false but an extremely divisive belief, promoted by the rich to divide and rule the have-nots by pitting us against each other.
The true purpose of Israeli violence against Palestinians is not to make Jews safe; it is to make Palestinians so angry at Israel that Israel's billionaire ruling upper class can portray Palestinians to ordinary Israeli Jews as a frightening bogeyman enemy from which the Israeli government purports to protect Jews; this is how the Israeli upper class controls and gets away with horribly economically oppressing working class Israeli Jews to make the billionaires richer. It has nothing to do with making Jews safe. This is shown to be the case with overwhelming evidence in the article, "Israel's Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians," [https://www.pdrboston.org/israel-s-government-attacks-jews-to or also tinyurl.com/2aae6fa6 ] which I hope you will read.
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Here's a very short version, 116 words not counting "Dear editor":
The problem with Israel is not that its government oppresses Palestinians in order to make ordinary Jews safe. No! The problem is that the Israeli government oppresses Palestinians in order to make Palestinians so angry at Israel that Israel's billionaire ruling upper class can portray Palestinians to ordinary Israeli Jews as a frightening bogeyman enemy from which the Israeli government purports to protect Jews; this is how the Israeli upper class gets away with economically oppressing working class Israeli Jews to make the billionaires richer. It has nothing to do with making Jews safe. Please read the overwhelming evidence for this in, "Israel's Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians," [https://www.pdrboston.org/israel-s-government-attacks-jews-to or also tinyurl.com/2aae6fa6 ].