The Editor :

Re: "First step to protection is to cease hate promotion," Rubin Friedman, Letters, The Ottawa Citizen, September 7, 2001.

I note Canadian Jewish Congress communications director Rubin Friedman had included "Lebanese militias" among the Arab nationals who have at some time been responsible for killing Palestinians. Was he, I wonder, thinking of the vile Phalange, Israel's staunch ally, that butchered hundreds of Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps over two days in September 1982; areas which were then under control of the Israeli occupying army?

Measured against that hoary, grisly backdrop, Rubin Friedman's assurance of good "protection" for Palestinians has an ugly extortionist resonance about it; especially given the fact that the one responsible for the massacre, a certain Ariel Sharon, is now the Prime Minister of Israel.

Sincerely yours,

Orest Slepokura
Strathmore AB

c. Rubin Friedman

http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/letters/story.asp?id={3FC0233C-93 CC-4CB9-87BB-4BB8419C30D0}

First step to protection is to cease hate promotion | Rubin Friedman

Letters to the Editor | The Ottawa Citizen | September 07, 2001

Re: World community owes Palestinians protection against Israel, Sept. 3

Letter writer Hamid Moussa has it wrong. Palestinians need protection all right, primarily from the Arab and Palestinian leadership that has twice turned down the offer of statehood, is tyrannical everywhere and has consistently abused the rights of Palestinians.

How many Palestinians have been killed by Kuwaitis, by Jordanian troops, by Lebanese militias or by other Palestinians? More than have been killed by Israelis.

Jordan ruled the West Bank for 20 years without offering any autonomy to the Palestinians. Apparently, that was OK because Jordanians were not Jews but Arabs. Israel, the Jewish state, has offered statehood to the Palestinians. They did not like the offer because it came from Jews who would still have control of territory they claimed, the rest of Israel.

Israelis kill Palestinians who are trying to kill Jews. If Palestinians stopped attacking today, Israel would stop responding.

As for Israeli Arabs, they do face difficulties in a Jewish state, but have more civil and political rights and freedoms than any other Arabs in the Middle East, including Palestinians who live under Yasser Arafat's corrupt and dictatorial authority.

Most recently, international NGOs in Durban, South Africa allowed one of their documents to label Israel a racist state and to promote hatred of Jews. Even the UN human rights commissioner was unable to recommend adoption of this text. If the UN conference on racism adopts a similar declaration, it would be the most well publicized act of racist Jew-bashing in the 21st century.

Is it any wonder Israelis and Jews do not trust the United Nation or the weak-kneed international human rights organizations that have not once condemned the blatant Jew hatred in Durban?

There is only one way that Palestinians will achieve protection. Stop promoting Jew hatred, stop killing Jews and negotiate a peace deal.

Rubin Friedman,
Ottawa
Communications director, Canadian Jewish Congress