I don't normally post letters to the editor, even those with little chance of being published, but I feel that the more that editorials like this are met with flack, the harder it will eventually become to continue reporting the middle east with the same "Paletinians attack, Israel just tries to protect itself" garbage.
Here's hoping you try it out yourself in '09.
To: letters@globeandmail.com
Israeli politicians kill, editorialists provide apologetics. Although your editorial on December 30th ("Responding to Provocation," Dec 30, 2008) may have seemed to your staff to appear "dovish" in its call for pressure from the US, the EU, and the Arab League (although not Canada) for a ceasefire, it is nonetheless a justification of Israel's assault on civilian infrastructure in Gaza. Once again, the assumption has been made that only Israel has the "right" to "make its point" by denying humanitarian aid, turning Gaza into an open-air prison, and then killing 350 people while Hamas, elected by the Palestinian people, has no right to anything other than that of a conquered existence.
In the middle east war, the war of words matters far more than the military battles. Israel is allowed to kill hundreds and injure thousands only because this is considered something that's kind of okay by editorialists around the world. If your editorial staff truly cared about contributing to a peace in the middle east, they would stop providing incomprehensible defenses for Israel's "right to make a point" and start questioning its choice to commit collective punishment, a crime under international law.
The Dominion is a monthly paper published by an incipient network of independent journalists in Canada. It aims to provide accurate, critical coverage that is accountable to its readers and the subjects it tackles. Taking its name from Canada's official status as both a colony and a colonial force, the Dominion examines politics, culture and daily life with a view to understanding the exercise of power.
What is happening in Gaza is
What is happening in Gaza is grossly unjust, but in light of the attitudes of Palestinians toward Canadians and their indifference to social injustice in Canada they will not get any sympathy from me.
When I see a Palestinian protesting discrimination against white anglophone males, and protesting that over 50% of prisoners in Canada haven't been convicted of a crime, at the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv then I will consider reciprocating, but until then they have not earned my concern. The Palestinian community and the Arab and Muslim communities in Canada have done little to earn the good will of Canadian people. It is inherently imperialist to care about the other side of the world to begin with, and we have so many problems to deal with here in Canada that to bother oneself with other country's concerns suggests a lack of care for one's fellow citizens.
I know the history of Palestine well and they have not been done right; my sense of outrage, however, is greatly tempered by the lack of respect they show us Canadians in our own country.