[ YBA - I have no idea who Annie Lennox is, sounds like a SkyNews journalist. Similarly I never met the author of this letter Mr. Lipschitz, but due to the severe time restraints of my current occupation, I could never find time to write anything as clear and to-the-point as he has, so I'm sharing this with you, my readers. All emphasis has been added by myself! Enjoy!]
Dear Annie,
As a long time fan of yours, I must say that I was so disappointed to see you sitting under a Palestinian flag, in the company of “Red” Ken Livingstone, George Gallagher, etc, all of them unabashedly not only anti Israel, but anti Semites to boot.
As well as being beneath your personal dignity to sit with such people you are also placing yourself decisively behind and identifying with only one side in the conflict and have abandoned any pretense of impartiality whatsoever.
I definitely value your concern for human rights and my heart goes out to your obviously genuine heartache for the Palestinian suffering. As do ours. Where, however was that beautiful voice of yours when 6000, yes, 6000 rockets rained down on unprotected Israeli civilian villages, towns and kibbutzim, all of them purposely targeting civilians and only civilians. A whole population lived in fear, children suffering post traumatic stress, economies floundering, and for what?
We unilaterally pulled out of Gaza, uprooted enterprises of 30 years standing, which during that time had prospered and made the previously neglected desert bloom.
We pulled out with peace in our hearts, and the deeds to prove it. We left behind, intact, the most technically advanced hothouses in the world. We were prepared to train Palestinians and conglomerates of American Jews (please check the facts) were offering to do joint venture with these Palestinians to help them develop their economy. This would offer unheard of opportunities in the ‘refugee’ world which I might add would really defeat the aim of the Islamic nations who USE these poor people as pawns.
Gaza was presented an opportunity to have become a thriving tax free port city and we could have been living in peace and trading (this is the best method of peace) with a prosperous Gaza. The Gazans unfortunately strengthened the old adage “The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity” and alas, the hothouses were looted and wantonly destroyed and we were met with a barrage of rockets instead of joint ventures.
Foreign aid was spent on deadly weapons. Even when we had a “cease fire” rockets rained in on a daily business and the Hamas interpreted our incredible restraint as weakness. We pleaded, we threatened, until our threats had lost all meaning. Enough was enough.
Where were you (and Sky News for that matter) when we were shown gruesome live footage of an Israeli boy screaming on the floor of a Supermarket. Yes, a Supermarket where civilians do their shopping, subsequent to an unprovoked rocket attack.. His leg had been sheared off by an assault calculatingly and cynically targeting civilians. The stories are endless.
Military might doesn’t solve anything. The answer is in diplomacy suggests Miss Lennox. Annie, who with? The Hamas will neither speak to us nor even recognize our basic right of existence. Like their Iranian masters they steadfastly call for our utter and total destruction. Nothing less.
It is said that they are holding out for open border crossings.
They had open crossings till they started bombarding us. The crossings were never permanently closed but their temporary closures were vainly and ineffectively used as a deterrent. They even bombed the crossings!! Go figure.
Is all of this madness in order to gain what they already had, and could have had way back then by doing one simple thing. Stop bombarding us!
Israelis yearn for peace and have proved with deeds that we are prepared to pay a high price for this. Our peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt are living proof. The Gazans will not talk peace, at very best a truce. The last “truce” with Hamas was exploited in their smuggling weapons, building tunnels, training shock troops in Iran and building fortifications, as well as maintaining their daily bombardment of Israeli civilians. Hamas, Hizbollah, Al Quaida, etc. not only call for the destruction of Israel but mock the Western democracies, which they have also openly promised to demolish. These threatened Democracies call for even handedness in the region which is also perceived gleefully in their eyes as weakness. Did we learn nothing from Chamberlain?
Why is it that you, and other “liberal” people like yourself so savagely condemn Israel , with its democratic government, vocal opposition, free press, a world respected legal system, rights for minorities, etc? In short the only people in the Middle East, who adhere by YOUR standards, are vilified whilst you defend the people who trample on democracy, human rights, woman’s in particular, freedom of religion, freedom of speech. Need I go on with the list?
We have tried restraint, negotiations through 3rd parties, (as they won’t speak to us) cease fires (albeit one sided) nothing worked, all the above were seen as weakness. Like feeding the proverbial lion in order to get him to leave you alone it only increased their insatiable appetite, and so the time had come to act, and act strongly. Was our reaction disproportionate? Maybe we should have emulated them. For every Kassam rocket fired indiscriminately into a civilian population, should we have replied by sending helter skelter a rocket aimed into civilian areas and trust to luck where it falls? What would you, Red Ken and the gang have said about us then?
Hamas is to be judged, not only by its hideous actions but also by the company it keeps, Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, El Qaeda, all “giants of democracy and human rights,” all reviled by the democracies of the world, which nevertheless combine in a knee jerk reaction to malign Israel, when it eventually does what any other country would have done ages ago. Exercise its right of self defense and fulfill its obligations to its beleaguered citizens.
Annie, unfortunately you too, whom I so admired, must ultimately be judged by the company you keep.
Stanley Lipschitz
Jerusalem
Seed Newsvine