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From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.politics
Subject: Re: 'Protest for Syrian Jewry' - (nf)
Message-ID: <3581@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Mar-84 14:45:38 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.3581
Posted: Wed Mar 21 14:45:38 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Mar-84 14:57:45 EST
References: <6189@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Organization: The Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 54

~|	From: paul@uiucuxc.UUCP (Paul Pomes)
~|	
~|	And where do we go to protest Israel's occupation of Lebanon, its
~|	blatant act of war against Iraq (bombing their research reactor),
~|	its suppression of the elected city governments on the West Bank,
~|	etc?  

1. Israel's occupation of Lebanon? In case you hadn't noticed, Israel
has been trying to get *out* of Lebanon for a while, in some way which
would allow the continued security of Israel's northern towns. It was
Syria which would not agree to the pullout of troops from Lebanon. Not
that I see any protests against Syria's role in Lebanon today.

2. "Research reactor" indeed. Research into nuclear weapons, perhaps?
Iraq is more than self-sufficient in oil and hardly needs nuclear
reactors for energy. The Iraqi leader had publicly stated within the
Arab press that his goal was an atomic bomb.
	"Blatant act of war"? For your information, Israel and Iraq
are legally at war and have been since 1948. Iraq has consistently
refused to agree to any kind of peace with Israel or to acknowledge
its existence. Ever since 1948, the State of Israel has expressed
its willingness to negotiate a peace treaty with each and all of
its Arab adversaries. The Arab reply has always (until Egypt in 1977)
been "No peace, no negotiation, no recognition".
	If there is even the *remotest* chance that the reactor
was being used to develop a nuclear weapon, Israel was entirely
within its rights to bomb it. Note that the operation was carried
out with pinpoint accuracy - *nothing* except the reactor was damaged,
and the only casualties were people in the reactor at the time.
Thank you, but I prefer criticism from the world to yet another
several million dead Jews.

3. "Suppression of the elected city governments on the West Bank".
<<<TURN ON HEAVY SARCASM>>>
Oh indeed. And all the citizens of Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
Jordan, Libya, Yemen and the other Arab countries have elected governments.
Yes indeed, Israel was nasty, nasty, nasty to take away democracy
from a people who had enjoyed it for so long.
<<<HEAVY SARCASM OFF>>>
	The mayors and councils which were dismissed were fomenting
rebellion and opposition to the Israeli government, in land which is
subject to the jurisdiction and under the control of the Israeli government.
If the people of the West Bank didn't wish to become under Israeli
control in the first place, they should have encouraged their (Jordanian)
government not to attack Israel in 1967. If they don't like it now,
they are welcome to leave for their own country (Jordan), just as
Jews throughout the Middle East left their homes for their own country
(Israel).


Dave Sherman
Toronto
-- 
 {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!dave