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The Fading Faith of a Jewish Moral Exceptionalist Sh’ma 40/664 November 2009/Cheshvan 5770

Dear editor:

I strongly disagree with David N. Myers’ view of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Its report is simply another example of the U.N.’s anti- Israel bias.  Several members of Goldstone’s “impartial” panel issued denunciations of Israel before investigations had begun; the commission willingly accepted testimony from Palestinian “eyewitnesses.” (Such testimony has often been discredited. Recall, for instance, the Jenin massacre that never took place).

Israel warned civilians of impending attacks and attacked civilian areas only because: 1) Hamas fighters hid among civilians; 2) Hamas fired from schoolyards and apartment blocks; and 3) Hamas stored munitions under mosques, schools, and hospitals. Israel halted fighting for hours each day to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and set up field hospitals to treat civilian casualties (while the Egyptian border remained closed to the entry of supplies into Gaza and the exit of wounded from Gaza).

It is unconscionable that the world continues to gloss over Hamas’ crimes, committed  both against Israeli civilians and the Palestinians of Gaza. The lot of the Palestinian people will not be improved by those who seek to delegitimize Israel. The Palestinians’ only hope is that the world will finally stop enabling the Arab leaders who are using them as pawns in their relentless drive to destroy Israel.

Toby F. Block

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