I was outraged by Tuesday's opinion piece, "Is Syria next." Yousuf Al-Bulushi needs to get his facts straight. He seems indignant that Syria is on the Axis of Evil list, yet that list contains just Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Syria should be on that list, since its government has committed innumerable atrocities against their own people. The most famous of which was the incident in the city of Hama, where people protested unfair policies of the government. In response, President Al-Assad leveled the entire city, killing more than 20,000 of his own people. Al-Assad died recently, but since Syria's government is not a democracy, power passed to his son, who is just as evil.
As far as a nation's right to self-defense goes, Israel has a lot more of a right to attack Syria than the U.S. had to attack Iraq. Israel lives under the constant threat of a neighbor who publicly vowed to drive all the Jews in to the sea and three times has declared war simply because they didn't like the idea of Jews living nearby. Does Al-Bulushi think that Israel should just sit there and twiddle its thumbs while Syrians kill Israelis, or openly support with money or materials those who do?
Of course he thinks that. Since Israelis are relatively the most wealthy people in the region, they must be stealing something from the poor. They can't possibly be so successful because they work harder, or devote their time to something other than killing their neighbors because of their religsion.
And all you anti-Israelis out there, before you even think it, Israelis do not kill neighbors because of their religion. Israelis kill only those connected directly with terrorist incidents. Far fewer innocents die in Israeli attacks on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip than innocents die in suicide attacks on Israel, when innocents and specifically children are targeted. In fact, Israel has dramatically less collateral damage in military strikes than all other civilized nations, including the U.S.
I refer to Israel as a civilized nation because they, alone in the Middle East, are a democracy. Israelis freely elect their government.
They have civil rights comparable to any Western power--women are equals, and minorities are equals. Yes, anti-Israelis, minorities are equals.
Israel is also secular. One does not have to be Jewish to have power or rights. In fact, almost 1/6 of the country is Muslim. Muslims that don't run around killing children simply because the Jews are very successful in Israel. Many own businesses or hold high political office. You won't find the same level of civil rights anywhere else in the Middle East.
So, the next time Al-Bulushi wants to go on an anti-Israel rant, he should just know that there are individuals out there who know what is really going on, and who will not let him spread his hateful lies.
David Shiffman
Trinity '07
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.