Sunday, March 18, 2007

An open letter to Nick Kristof

Here is a comment that I posted on NY Times columnist Nick Kristof's comment page regarding his op-ed piece in today's NY Times. (To read the piece, click here) As of now I am one of 233 comments most overwhelmingly positive. His normal number seems to be about 5. Something may be happening.
Dear Nick:
It pains me to say this in a country that claims freedom of the press as one of its core values, but thank you for your courage in writing this important piece. People like you and Jimmy Carter may force the debate in the U.S. that, as you say, rages in Israel. You will probably feel the rage of the usual suspects, but I guess that goes with the territory. This weekend we had a conference in our town on Darfur with Brian Steidle sponsored by our Jewish community at which your role in bringing this tragedy to the front was praised by all attending. I hope that my Jewish friends will feel as positive about you today as they did yesterday. With a new unity government in the Palestinian territories I hope that the PA will claim the only piece of vacant land in Israel/Palestine - the moral high ground. Acceptance by the PA of the Arab League proposal for a two state solution would put enormous pressure on the US/Israel to engage on the serious issues. Your leadership may be important in making something happen. We would then see if a two state solution is really possible. It is not clear to me how 300,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank can be made to disappear.

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