Letters from Readers
Additional thoughts on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East
While I applaud C.N. Rao’s beautifully written letter (“Readers Write: Thoughts on the ongoing crisis in the Middle East”) in the November 2023 Khabar issue—which I read from cover to cover—I think it behooves his appeal for humanity and tolerance of diverse views to also recognize that human suffering demands that we (each one of us) not stand by and lament about human vices in an abstract way.
Rao is right to note that the immediate conflict is part of a larger story. He is also right to remind us that any attack on civilians, let alone the barbaric slaughter from both sides since October 7, is wrong. But I’d like to provoke your readers’ minds a little further than us simply condemning it... and then turning the page. Allow me to state the following brief points to your subscribers:
- The utility of attributing guilt to one side or the other escapes me.
- Looking back 75 years, the facts are that two million or more Palestinians do not have their own sovereign nation. This is explained by each side telling us they are the true victims.
- Looking forward 75 years, time will tell whether my fear is fulfilled: Israel may take vengeance for the events of October 7, 2023; but it will not end the violence.
- Neither Hamas, Hezbollah, nor any other armed group wishing to inflict hurt upon Israel will be wiped out by Israel doing what it is doing and may still be doing by the time the December issue of Khabar is published.
- Members of the new armed struggle against Israel are being born every minute, right now, in the eyes of every 12-year-old Palestinian who survives the current carnage.
- These groups will have new names and be supplied by arms merchants with ever-increasingly lethal weapons. Violence will continue and Israelis will die. As will Palestinians. To think a “final solution” will be achieved by Israel’s current plans is to ignore history.
- More Israeli and Palestinian mothers will bury their children and never see them live a full life or marry and have kids of their own.
- This problem will not go away until Palestinians are given their own, sovereign, uncontrolled-by-Israel lands to run themselves. No prisoners being whipped senseless will ever be quiet forever. They sit and wait... until next time.
- Every international body recognizes that this land must be Gaza and the entire West Bank— not the Swiss-cheese map that Israeli leaders are shopping around in order to appease fanatics wrapping themselves in the religious cloak of a great religion like Judaism.
- Jerusalem must be the capital of both countries—and can be.
Leaders from Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have continued to remind us that injustice happens when we are silent, not when humans are violent. Yes, C.N. Rao is correct when he shakes his head at the state of affairs across this and many similar global conflicts. But this one has a solution and I believe it is in our hands, not in the hands of governments.
We, every one of us, should be speaking, writing letters and emails, demanding that this conflict be resolved by giving Palestinians their true home. Not just for their sake, but equally for the sake of the Israeli population. Let’s stop using our voices to choose sides like this was a cricket match. Especially when the younger generation is embarrassing us older folk by demonstrating more humanity and courage than we ever did.
The choice here is not which side is right or what information is misinformation and fake news. It doesn’t matter. Let’s not play that game. Our game was defined by leaders who lived the peace they preached. Let our voices support their ideals.
Dr. Sherin S. Kamal
by email
Well-written editorial on the “cult of jingoism”
The editorials by Khabar are always distinct, enlightening, and topical. Your editorial in the October issue (“The Cult of Jingoism Zindabad”) is a masterpiece that succinctly differentiated the almost universal rise of disturbing and destructive jingoism that has eclipsed positive nationalism and patriotism, especially in a once pluralistic India.
This editorial deserves a much wider readership beyond the captive South Asian audience to encourage deeper reflection and empower them to spread this timely pluralistic message for the good of our troubled world.
Nizar Motani
Atlanta
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Note: Views expressed in the Letters section do not necessarily represent those of the publication.
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