Letters - Friday

Israel to blame in Mideast

For peace talks to begin Palestinians must first recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and "allow Israel means to defend itself," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pontificated ("Netanyahu doesn't endorse call for Palestinian state," The Gazette, May 19). Netanyahu does not represent all Jews or Israelis but primarily the Jewish-Christian Zionist movement.

The PLO recognized Israel's right to exist in 1987. Israel has a stockpile of nuclear weapons; Iran does not. It has the fourth-strongest military in the world. Palestinians have none. Israel's Prime Minister Golda Meir (1967) publicly stated that "there is no such thing as a Palestinian," even though a concerted plan of ethnic cleansing has been pursued by the Zionists. If Palestinians are required to recognize Israel, when will Israel be required to recognize that Palestinians exist and have rights under international law?

David Ben Gurion said in 1938: "I am for compulsory transfer." And in 1948: "We need to harm them without mercy, women, children included." This is what Netanyahu means by a "Jewish state," which already exists and discriminates against indigenous Jews and Palestinian Christian and Muslim Arabs within its borders.

The beginning of a plan for peace is Israeli military withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the end to dominant control over Gaza. There will be no peace in the Middle East until the Zionist leaders of Israel and their Christian Zionist supporters listen to their own courageous Jewish Israeli peace movement that practices the ancient biblical call for justice and mercy.

I will be accused of anti-Semitism for writing this letter. As a civil rights attorney I have a lifelong history of working for justice for minority groups, including Jews and Palestinians, who are also Semites. Opposition to the policies of the secular state of Israel has nothing whatever to do with anti-Semitism. Palestinians do exist and they and their Jewish cousins must reconcile, and discover that their security lies with each other. Until they do, our own security and peace will remain in a state of perpetual chaos.

Bill Durland, Colorado Springs

Left ignores facts in debate

It's well known that the left's capacity for myth-making is nearly limitless, as is its predilection to air brush objectionable facts from the record. Letter writer Tina Routhier continues that ignoble tradition with her assertion that "We now know that the former president and vice president did twist the truth in order to go to war" ("Lying part of past administration," Letters, May 19).

Page 84 of the July 7, 2004 report by the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence references a June 1999 report, which concluded: "All of the assessments in these [Intelligence] Community papers on Iraq's nuclear program were consistent in assessing that: Iraq continued low-level clandestine theoretical research and training of personnel, and was attempting to procure dual-use technologies and materials that could be used to reconstitute its nuclear program ? if Iraq acquired fissile material it could have a crude nuclear weapon within a year."

Every intelligence agency in the world believed Saddam Hussein constituted a credible threat to his neighbors and to the civilized world.

It's clear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi she was contemporaneously briefed on interrogation techniques, and she had a sworn duty to object if she believed they were illegal. Yet, because it was politically expedient to swim with the current, she remained silent. Now that she's swimming upstream, her story conveniently changes. She's a profile in cowardice, not courage.

Philip Mella, Woodland Park

Don't threaten officials

Although the current right-wing "strategy of diversion" is to blame Nancy Pelosi for the torturing of detainees, how dare The Gazette print a letter suggesting the torture of a duly elected representative of the United States Congress ("Pelosi lying to Americans," May 16)? While I vehemently disagree with Rep. Doug Lamborn on many issues, I would never wish him harm.

Let's talk about the issues. I cannot understand people who live in glass houses (those who instigated and authorized the torture) castigating someone (who was legally bound to remain silent) for doing their patriotic duty. Patriotism has been turned on it's head. If Nancy Pelosi had come out against these methods, she would have been branded a traitor.

Phil Pepalis, Peyton

Ritter's tax move typical

I, too, am a senior citizen who will be deprived of the Senior Citizen Homestead Act property tax break ("Seniors deserve better treatment," Letters, May 19). The Slaymakers indicated that "we" (I assume that means they voted for Bill Ritter, Barack Obama, et al, and are not referring to the citizenry as a whole) voted for Ritter and the Democrats. I learned at my father's knee that when placing Democrats in office you are asking for more taxes. By voting Democratic, they have gotten us and our kids and grandkids in a pickle in many ways and now we are all stuck with it.

You ain't seen nothin' yet. Hold on to your wallets.

Robert L. Hinshaw, Widefield