First Light Books
Peace Requires All Sides to Work Together
RECEIVED Fri., Jan. 9, 2009
Dear Editor,
Michael King's chiding of Gov. Perry's position on the Hamas/Israeli conflict provides the argument that an oppressed people have justification for terrorism, while self-defense is considered massive state terrorism [“Point Austin,” News, Jan. 9]. Mr. King goes on to admit that he does not know "what will bring an end to this endless cycle of violence." Innocent people dying from bombs from airplanes is just as horrible as innocent children being killed in their schools by suicide bombers. This is not only a conflict about land but really about a people's right to merely exist. Jews and Arabs lived peacefully side by side in this region of the world for thousands of years. Jerusalem was the homeland of the Jews until being decimated by Roman Emperor Pompey in 63BC. The Philistines were the majority population until the 19th century, but the landscape changed with the British Balfour Declaration and the post-World War II U.N. resolution establishing a Jewish state. Yes, battles ensued, oppression occurred, thousands lost their lives. But these tragedies can be sourced well before the establishment of the current Jewish homeland to the beginning of the "extreme" faction of Islam (the sixth and seventh centuries), which to this date clearly believes that Jews do not have a right to exist, anywhere! There will never be peace until Hamas and all other extreme Islamic factions recognize that Jewish people have a right to live on this planet.
Michael King's chiding of Gov. Perry's position on the Hamas/Israeli conflict provides the argument that an oppressed people have justification for terrorism, while self-defense is considered massive state terrorism [“Point Austin,” News, Jan. 9]. Mr. King goes on to admit that he does not know "what will bring an end to this endless cycle of violence." Innocent people dying from bombs from airplanes is just as horrible as innocent children being killed in their schools by suicide bombers. This is not only a conflict about land but really about a people's right to merely exist. Jews and Arabs lived peacefully side by side in this region of the world for thousands of years. Jerusalem was the homeland of the Jews until being decimated by Roman Emperor Pompey in 63BC. The Philistines were the majority population until the 19th century, but the landscape changed with the British Balfour Declaration and the post-World War II U.N. resolution establishing a Jewish state. Yes, battles ensued, oppression occurred, thousands lost their lives. But these tragedies can be sourced well before the establishment of the current Jewish homeland to the beginning of the "extreme" faction of Islam (the sixth and seventh centuries), which to this date clearly believes that Jews do not have a right to exist, anywhere! There will never be peace until Hamas and all other extreme Islamic factions recognize that Jewish people have a right to live on this planet.
Ron Landry
