So spokesmen for the Canadian Jewish Congress, Len Rudner (Letter, Aug. 15, 2001) and Frank Bialystok (Letter, Aug. 17, 2001), find misguided those opposed to the deportation of Helmut Oberlander for collaborating with the Nazis in his youth.

While I am not opposed to Oberlander's deportation, I find the spokesmen's comments hypocritical given that the Congress continues its unstinting support for the policies of the government of Israel led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose own long history of war crimes includes the ultimate responsibility for the massacre of more than 2,000 Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Chatila in 1982.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, as prime minister in 1996, sanctioned the Israeli bombing of a UN compound in Qana, Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 120 Lebanese civilians.

Moreover, in its current war being waged against Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Israeli government perpetrates a whole series of war crimes including, but not limited to, extrajudicial killing, the torture and murder of civilians including children, ethnic cleansing through the demolition of Palestinian homes, and transferral of population to occupied territories.

Despite this, the Canadian Jewish Congress does not condemn Israel's actions, but lauds Israel's "democracy." Perhaps Rudner should heed his own advice when he states that "it is obviously easier for people to hold an absurd position than it is to come to terms with an unpleasant reality."

Blair Kuntz
Formosa