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FEB. 20 LETTER: Make a balanced argument

A recent letter's justification for withdrawing support from Israel is one-sided and short on substance.

Editor:

Re: Withdraw support (letter, Feb. 13, 2013 issue of the Gazette)

I agree home issues demand all of our financial support but (Sorelensen’s) justification for withdrawing support from Israel is one sided and short on substance. Please try to give a balanced argument in support of your statement.

He says Israel is responsible for all the problems of the Middle East, and that country alone, exercises lack of compassion and threatens unjustly its neighbours.

Israel has to the best of my knowledge, always allowed other faiths to exist alongside it and even within its borders. Tell me the same tolerance exists in neighbouring countries.

Tell me when Israel has ever declared a jihad, against other states for any reason, other than being constant in threatening retribution for attacks, Arab threats are hardly those of a neighbour, that wants to co-exist.

In an argument, threats flow in two directions.

When did Israel hijack planes and bomb other countries? Perhaps Sorelensen feels he has justified that in his argument.

True, Israel is responsible for innocent deaths in war situation that exist between Middle East countries. That is bound to happen though I wished it were not so.

Fortunately the hundreds of rockets that descend upon Israel (from Palestine) have not resulted in the sort of destruction we witnessed on 9-11.

Then there is his assertion that the deprivation suffered in the Middle East is down to the Israelis. What of the trillions of dollars of oil income that flows into the Middle East every year?

There is no excuse for poverty in the Middle East countries.

Perhaps its zeal is only to increase military might at the expense of their poor.

The East (China, Russia and Korea) and the West (Europe and America) all supply arms to both sides, perhaps that money we give them returns in arms purchase.

Might that help keep their respective arms industries alive? Could that not be were the fault Lies?

I just hope the overthrow of some of the Middle East’s militant rulers will result in better conditions for its people.

David Bevan, Grand Forks