July 12, 2005

Editor
Gladwin County Record
editor@ejourney.com
publisher@ejourney.com

Dear Editor,

In her article “Promoting Peace in Palestine”, (June 21) Jennifer McArdle paints a very biased and one-sided picture, and neither the headline nor the content acknowledge the right of Israelis to live in peace. Indeed, the description of the activities of Charles O’Rourke reflects an extreme political bias, erasing the history of Palestinian hatred and terror attacks that have killed thousands of innocent Israelis over the decades. For example, the readers of this article are not told that O’Rourke’s "initial detainment for question" is entirely the result of the fact that Palestinian bombers have used foreign sympathizers to bring in weapons, and other assistance in the past. Furthermore, McArdle repeats O’Rourke’s allegations regarding "the demolition of Palestinian homes, which are destroyed as Israeli people take the land by force from the Palestinians.” This was no effort to verify these allegations, resulting in one-sided propaganda and incitement that, as shown by NGO Monitor, seeks to turn Israelis into monsters in order to justify terrorism.

In an age of mass terrorism, whether in New York, Madrid, London or Jerusalem, the need for all countries, including Israel to defend the basic rights of their citizens is central. In this context, the members of the Israel Defense Forces and the intelligence establishment are forced to deal with very complex situations, but the Christian Peacemakers Teams attempt to hide this difficult reality.. If Charles O’Rourke and the other members of this activity were really interested in promoting peace, for Jews as well as for Arabs, they would not promote such a biased and extremist perspective. The Jewish people have suffered from such hatred and violence for far too long.

Ariel Rosenzveig
www.ngo-monitor.org
mail@ngo-monitor.org