Columnist gets it
The Daily News and its readers are fortunate to have an opinion columnist like Nick Gier who, essay after essay, writes with clarity and understanding on important issues. A perfect example is his Nov. 16 column, “The ‘Whole Truth’ About the Hamas-Israel War.” Its value lies in placing the conflict in an historical perspective.
Gier begins by acknowledging Hamas as a “murderous” organization bent on the destruction of the Jewish people, not simply an attack on the Israeli government. Its aim is no different from that of Nazi Germany: genocide .
Gier reminds us of what we may have forgotten, that the state of Israel was established after World War II and the Holocaust at the expense of Palestinian Arabs.
In subsequent decades Israeli governments repeatedly violated the human rights of the resentful, angry Palestinian people. In his 2006 critical book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” President Jimmy Carter contended this discrimination was tantamount to the extreme racism practiced by whites in South Africa.
In fairness, over the years both the Palestinian Authority and Israeli governments have sabotaged efforts to work out a two-state solution to the seemingly intractable problem. But it is the Israeli government which has provocatively, illegally promoted Jewish settlements on Palestinian land on the West Bank.
Nothing Israel has done or not done with respect to the Palestinians can justify or excuse the barbarism of Hamas. Let’s note Gier wisely prefaces his fine essay with Gandhi’s comment: “An eye for an eye ends up making the whole world blind.”
Doug Hughes
Moscow
