Letter to The Washington Post

From: Dr. Michael Berenhaus
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 5:20 PM
To: jimhoagland@washpost.com
Subject: Your recent Op-Ed piece

Dear Mr. Hoagland,

I was with you until the second-to-last paragraph in Is the Road Map’s Moment Gone? [Jan. 12, 2006]. When you refer to “centuries of occupation of the Palestinians by Turks, Arabs and Israelis,” I wonder which history books you are sourcing. Palestinians didn’t even see themselves as being a different nationality until the last century. My guess is that you are referring to Arabs who lived on those lands, but to call them Palestinians is to re-write history. In addition, you forgot to mention the British on your list of so-called occupiers. You might consider reading Time Immemorial by Joan Peters for a full history.

By the way, how can Palestinians be occupied by “Arabs” if they are Arabs? I know you didn’t mean that they were occupying themselves. Perhaps you would have been better off saying “Arab states” (Jordan and Egypt). The phrase was not clear for the average reader and inferred that Palestinians are different than Arabs – which of course is false.

You comment that “it must be said that four months is a short time to fix the consequences” of all these so-called occupiers. Why do you feel the need to make excuses for the Palestinians? They’re not even making excuses for themselves– just blaming others – and this is more likely the source of their problems and also the reason why the cure is not anywhere in sight.

Michael Berenhaus
Potomac, MD