July 20, 2006

To the Editor,

One hundred years ago, the Palestinians controlled 100% of the land of Palestine. By the time Arial Sharon proposed his unilateral “pullout” from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians had some semblance of control of roughly 24% of the land. The net result of Sharon’s pullout along with his concurrent annexations would have left them roughly 14%. The pullout itself, which the Palestinian people begged the Israelis not to do, left the Gaza Strip an island completely surrounded by Israeli military, and controlled internally by Hamas.

Other solutions proposed by the Israelis in the past were meaningless, as they would have granted the Palestinian people small islands of isolated land cut off from each other and from any possibility of economic independence. The wall which Israel insists on building is an abomination that is imprisoning innocent civilians and depriving them of access to their historical family vineyards and groves.

As a liberal, peace-nik Christian, I do not condone violence or military solutions by any of the involved parties, but those who justify Israel’s current slaughter of Lebanese civilians by claiming the Hizb’Allah threw the first punch are woefully ignorant of the history of the region.

I currently have aunts, uncles and cousins ranging in age from 6 months to their mid-70's, born and raised in Beirut and another small village in the area, who are struggling for their lives under the constant rain of American supplied Israeli bombs. The simplistic rhetoric coming from talk radio hosts, evangelical “Christians” and our President is an insult to these wonderful people. I urge President Bush to rethink his hands-off approach to Israel, and advocate in the strongest possible terms and end to the destruction of Lebanon.

Elliot M. Namay, Jr.