Letter to The Washington Post

From: mberenhaus@comcast.net
To: letters@washpost.com
Subject: letter to the editor
Date: Friday, October 03, 2008 1:53:24 AM


Dear Editor,

What more needs to be said about an op-ed written by an author who wrote a book about Israel, a country the size of New Jersey, and called it "The Accidental Empire"? Yes Gershom Gorenberg [Failure Written in West Bank Stone Sept. 30, 2008] has an agenda - given a platform for his view for the fourth time in less than three years in the Post – and he has been wrong each time. Israel won the West Bank - not from the Palestinians – but from an occupying power Jordan. In Gorenberg calling Israel an occupier, can he answer how can one occupy an occupier?

Jordan had been launching devastating attacks against Israel for years culminating in a massive attack which failed miserably during the Six Day War of 1967. Israel merely took the land from which they had been continuously attacked - is that such a crime? And as the holder of the land, it is Israel’s right to do with it as it chooses. It chose to give a majority of it to the Palestinian inhabitants of the area. No credit was given to Israel for this – only endless condemnation by the likes of the UN, the European Union, and Pro-Arabists like Gorenberg – all with anti-Israel pasts – for it not being enough.

The Palestinians, bear in mind, were on the side of Jordan during the war – the losers. They have made more demands as losers of a war than ever recorded. And with each passing day, they deserve to get less and less – perhaps it will spur them on to do something that they sorely need to do if they hope to have a state of their own – compromise – and be grateful that they are getting anything.

Michael Berenhaus