Letter to the Editor: Covering the Competing Israeli-Palestinian Storylines

The New York Times

February 2, 2009

By Benjamin Solomon

I am a rather aged American Jew, a World War II veteran, who is a critic of Israel but who also sympathizes with Ethan Bronner's journalistic plight.

Whatever one might say about Zionism and Israel's violent birth in 1948, its task then was to gain over time acceptance and a tolerable peace with its Arab neighbors.

Some three decades ago, however, a Likud-led government opted for a policy of folly and moral wrongness by generating a dynamic of perpetual strife. It chose to strive for exclusive sovereignty over all the Holy Land by building settlements in the occupied territories with the protection of
its military.

Given all its complexities, I believe that this decision determined the course of history till this day. I am anguished that Israel has taken this path and at its dire consequences. But the facts cannot be denied. They exist in the huge settlements in the West Bank and the accumulated trauma of years of heightened violence, suffering and hatred.

I can only ask Mr. Bronner to include this historical context whenever
appropriate.

Benjamin Solomon
Evanston, Ill., Jan. 25, 2009