Rejoinder to W. Esposo's Jan. 11 column

Reading through the article of Mr. William Esposo (“Who are the real terrorists in the Holy Land?” dated January 11, 2009), one wonders where to start in correcting its errors. Is it with the quote of Mahatma Gandhi in the heading of the article that he puts in the mouth of Tevye from “Fiddler on the Roof” ? Or maybe one should start with his claim, based mostly on sheer ignorance, that during the holocaust, Jews marched to their death “like sheep meekly marching to the slaughter house”. Perhaps one should start with the most amazing claim made by Mr. Esposo, that the Old Testament of the Bible “is mostly the wishful thinking of landless nomadic tribes”. Out of respect to your readers, I would assume that you know those claims to be plainly ridiculous.

Mr. Esposo, like others, is entitled to his own opinion on the conflict in the Middle East. Even in Democratic Israel today, we debate different issues openly and with mutual respect. His lack of knowledge and strong prejudice, though, make the whole discussion somewhat pointless. If he would open the most basic history book about Modern Middle East, he would find out that the creation of the State of Israel was not “a land grab” but a UN resolution taken on the 29th of November 1947 which got the majority support of countries around the world, among them the Philippines. The tragedy of course is the unwillingness of the Arab countries to accept the partition, approved by this UN resolution, and the Palestinian state that could have been born there and then, never came into being. Mr. Esposo would find it interesting to know that during the years between 1948 and 1967 the two Arab countries that controlled the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Jordan and Egypt), never dreamed of creating a Palestinian state in these territories. Mr. Esposo should also be reminded of some facts. Such as the fact that in our fight for Independence, we never targeted women and children, we never used suicide bombers. We never hijacked civilian airliners. We never exploded mosques or terrorized villages and towns with rockets. After reading that, he might be less confused about the difference between terrorists and freedom fighters.

What makes Mr. Esposo’s article especially infuriating is his touch of old fashion hate called anti-Semitism. It’s been a while since we read in reputable newspapers the age old story about how Jews controlled the world. In one of the dark corners of the 19th century, a book was written called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion which presented this hateful and shameful claim. This book and the people who follow its thinking led to the creation of modern anti-Semitic ideology which with other things brought about the Nazi ideology and the Jewish holocaust. This was always the tactic used against us by people who refused to accept our legitimate right — whether they were 19th century anti-Semites, 20th century Nazis or 21st century extreme Islamic terrorists.

In fighting against Hamas in Gaza we are doing what any government would do in face of a brutal onslaught against its civilian population. Hamas is doing its best to hide amongst civilians and launch its rockets from within heavily populated area. If civilians are being killed their blood is on the hands of Hamas leaders that are hidden comfortably in bunkers or in Damascus. As we showed in the past we would negotiate with anyone who recognize us and leave the path of terror, but we will not negotiate away our civilian security.

Being an open and democratic society, we understand that some would not agree with us, but it would be wise if they would base their opinion on real knowledge rather than back them up with old fashioned racial hatred toward the Jewish people. — ZVI A. VAPNI, Ambassador, Embassy of Israel, Manila, Philippines