I am an English non Jew, who has always appreciated and respected Jewishpeople, even identified with them in certain ways: respect for theintellect, the search for righteousness in the face of worldlyincomprehension, etc. I recently took a short course in Judaism with theOpen University, during which I was very much moved by the integrity ofvision, and the purity, and universality, of the moral quest I foundthere. I was prepared to accept Judaism as the cradle of Western civilizedvalues.
So, I have taken an interest in Israel, and in the way she exemplifiesthose values…It has been a steep, and devastating, learning curve. May it suffice tosay that the one point of relief and hope has been the few groups, amongthem Gush Shalom, who are willing to protest the ghastly inhumanity ofyour state’s pursuit of another people’s territory, not to say humanity.
Your spokespeople on our radios stake their claim on the land of Palestineon a two thousand year old covenant with God. Whether or not one canaccept the literal truth of that statement, surely God is nothing if not amoral concept? By jettisoning every conceivable standard ofmorality-humanity-in your approach to the security of your citizens,haven’t you by now relinquished at least that justification of yourexistence as a nation among others?
Please keep publishing letters that point out the obvious truth that anti-Zionism is not anti -Semitism.
Lia Young