WILLIAMSVILLE-Mark Treinkman responded to an opinion he didn't like by belittling its author, questioning the legitimacy of its points, and offering his own more "scholarly" opinion as a substitute.
He advocates for "knowledge and context," so let's try to apply some to what he wrote.
Mr. Treinkman correctly reminded us that Jews have lived alongside Arabs in Palestine for centuries. Jews and Arabs, in fact, coexisted with minimal friction between them for a very long time.
It was only when Zionists decided to make Palestine the future home for a uniquely Jewish state did tensions arise. Palestinian Arabs began to realize that the sudden influx of Jewish immigration and capital was not happenstance, but an organized effort to establish a Jewish state.
Thus, the first seeds of true animosity and opposition were sown.
Palestinians are fighting against an existential threat to their freedom and their homeland. This is the reason that the state of Israel is seen as an enemy by them and the situation is understood as a war.
As we know, there is no morality in war. Its actions and actors are violent, and it is always the non-combatants who suffer the most by this violence.
Mr. Treinkman asserts that "experts" claim that the Israel Defense Forces are the "most moral military on the planet." The protesters who have been murdered with sniper shots to the back of their heads by IDF snipers would probably disagree if they were still alive.
The very notion of a moral military is an artificial construct, and bestowing the honor on the IDF is just magical thinking.
He also asserts that the Arabs who are Israeli citizens enjoy "full rights and citizenship" in Israel, ignoring the dozens of laws that limit the rights of Israeli Arabs.
Zionists are not alone in choosing to live by myths (often known as lies) when it is more convenient than facing the truth. Americans are a prime example.
Not wanting to brag about land theft and genocide as a crucial building block to building our nation, we created the notion of "Manifest Destiny," which brought God to our side and put us at a distance from our crimes.
We also chose to take refuge in the noble and aspirational words written by the notable enslaver Thomas Jefferson, "all men are created equal," hoping that that unrealized aspiration would somehow erase the stark reality of enslavement, prejudice, violence, and murder directed against the Black population in this country since its inception.
The many Jews who are members of Jewish Voice for Peace might be surprised to find that, according to Mr. Treinkman, they aren't Jewish after all, and are most likely antisemitic to boot.
He also dismisses the use of the word "genocide" to describe current Israeli actions in Palestine, implying that it is simply a word being bandied about with no understanding of the precise nature of the term.
He is correct in that there has not yet been a conclusive ruling that genocide is happening, but he fails to mention that the multinational case against Israel that is proceeding in the International Court of Justice has already seen near-unanimous rulings by the judges stating that Israel's arguments for the dismissal of the charges were not sufficient and that the case can continue to proceed based on the evidence thus far produced.
In fact, just recently Israel has been lobbying members of the U.S. Congress to use their international muscle to try to cajole the court to drop the case, a sign that Israel does not have much faith in its own legal defense against the charges.
Finally, he instructs us that criticisms that offer a different worldview than those of the Zionists will only make them scapegoats and will harden their hearts and make dialogue impossible.
One could equally say that choosing myths over facts and being dismissive of other points of view as being "emotionally formed from poorly sourced information" will have the same effect on people who support freedom for Palestinians.
Dan DeWalt
Williamsville
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
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