‘Who will be for me?’
Gershon Baskin has it wrong (“No hope,” August 4). The problem isn’t Israel’s supposed indifference to Palestinian suffering. One problem is that the Palestinian leaders are indifferent to Palestinian suffering. And a bigger problem is that the Palestinian leaders are the cause of much of their people’s suffering.
Yet, even after writing several paragraphs of Palestinians complaining about the corruption of the PA and Hamas, Baskin tells us that the true problem is Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. And, furthermore, he doesn’t think the leaders are now stealing more of the people’s money than they have been doing all along. (Does he not realize that, as disgusted donor nations have cut their contributions to Palestinian leaders, the fixed amount of money being stolen is a larger portion of the shrunken pie?)
Baskin admits that Palestinians working in Israel earn higher salaries than they would if they were working in areas under Palestinian administration. But he laments that Palestinian youth are unable to aspire to more than being a construction worker or car washer. Yet he ignores the obvious solution – Palestinian leaders should be building the economies in Areas A and B and in Gaza and providing Palestinian children with the education needed to succeed in today’s high-tech world. Israel would be happy to participate in such efforts.
Baskin’s complaints about settler violence ring hollow in the face of the PA’s pay for slay policy. With very limited economic opportunity in Areas A and B, constant anti-Jewish propaganda spewing from Palestinian mosques, schoolrooms, and media outlets, is it any wonder that Israeli troops need to arrest people who have sought honor and reward by attacking and killing Jews? Israel certainly doesn’t encourage or reward its people to attack Palestinians, and reports of “settler violence” are often exaggerated.
Baskin ends with a litany of the many outsiders who have disappointed the Palestinians. But the Palestinians would be well advised to take Hillel’s dictum to heart. “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” True supporters of the Palestinian people need to urge Palestinian leaders to stop trying to destroy Israel and to start building a society in which their people can become productive citizens.
TOBY F. BLOCK Atlanta