Letters to the Editor

Claims ISM ‘Commited To Destruction of Israel

The ISM's terrorist sympathies are evidenced further by what actually happened to Rachel Corrie. Ms. Corrie was not merely "run over by a bull dozer in March of 2003, while trying to protect a Palestinian home." The "home" was a cover for underground tunnels terrorists use to smuggle weapons into Israel. Ms. Corrie placed herself in a combat area in order to aid and protect terrorists, and she was killed accidentally when a bulldozer operator failed to see her. Though her death was tragic, the News-Press should have reported the circumstances fairly, and not implied that she was murdered while engaged in a noble act.

ISM is also committed to the destruction of Israel. Despite its self-serving claims to the contrary, the ISM, through its most prominent members, have called for an end to Israel.

Additionally, if any party has committed human rights violations it is the Palestinians who recruit, pay, and become suicide bombers. Those who target and murder innocent civilians-including the elderly, women and children- are the real human rights violators

Moreover, the Israelis have treated Ms. Spector decently: she is able to petition the court, has a lawyer, has made phone calls, and even granted the News-Press an interview! According to the News-Press article, Ms. Spector could be released immediately. All she has to do is agree to come home. Furthermore, Israel's actions do not contradict the law of return. The law of return does not provide Jews the right to visit Israel; it provides them the right to emigrate to Israel. With that right comes certain obligations, including military service to ensure the security of Israel. According to the article, Ms. Spector did not intend to emigrate to Israel.

Finally, regarding the security wall, it is an unfortunate necessity. There is nothing "ostensible" about the Israelis' reasoning for building the wall; it is designed solely to protect them, and the News-Press should refrain from implying otherwise. Israel has shown that it is willing to give up land for peace. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak proved this in July 2000 when he agreed to give up land for a Palestinian state. PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat was the one who derailed the speedy establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state because he was not willing to make concessions. If and when the Palestinians' forgo terror and return to the negotiating table in good faith, and a viable two state solution is reached, the wall can be removed.

The ISM's policy of supporting terrorists and the destruction of Israel, and the News-Press' policy of anti-Israel reporting do nothing to further mutual respect and the cause of Middle East peace.

Beth S. Heleman; Falls Church

(Ed. note - In an interview with the News-Press this week, a press spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., said he did not consider the ISM either terrorist or violent.)

Opposing Likud Party is Not Anti-Semitic

Ms. Spector makes clear that opposing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Likud Party in Israel is not anti-Semitic. It is anti-Semitic, and not in the interest of Israel or the Jewish people, to support Israel's terrible policies. Being a Jew herself, she is not anti-Semitic.

A few years ago it was possible to compare Israel's relationship to Palestine to that of South Africa and the Bantustans during apartheid. Today the relationship, as the so-called "security fence" expands, is closer to that of Nazi Germany and the Warsaw Ghetto of Poland under occupation. What Israel is building is open-air prisons that contravene the Fourth Geneva Convention and all norms of international law.

We should not allow our congressional representatives to support AIPAC's perverted agenda in our names. Fortunately, Jim Moran represented me and not AIPAC when he voted against a recent resolution supporting the "separation barrier" and deploring the International Court of Justice ruling against it. While Israelis are within their rights to build any barriers they want on their own land. They should not be permitted to take land from the Palestinians for walls or for settlements. None of us would sit by silently if our neighbor decided to build a wall, fence or barrier on our property to protect him/her from us. That is not how the world works. Our Congress should be saying, "Mr. Sharon, tear down that wall."

Jamie Spector is a hero cut out of the same cloth as Rachel Corrie, Brian Avery, and Tom Hurndell and other members of the International Solidarity Movement who have stood up non-violently in support of the Palestinian people's right to live in peace and freedom. We should all follow her example and do what we can to end the wall and the occupation in Palestine.

Dorie Southern; Falls Church

Housing Board Thanks Residents For Attention

We appreciate the cooperative spirit represented at the meeting as we sustained a very productive and helpful dialogue-clarifying several misunderstandings and providing opinions that will help to give our community the best collaborative development possible to benefit our community's long term interests. We look forward to continuing the dialogue and maintaining that spirit of cooperation as we go forward with our plans for West End View-future home to seniors in our community.

Carol Jackson, FCHC Executive Director, Falls Church

Housing Plan At West End Still Too Big

The message did not get through. We were presented with a building still five stories high, towering over everything in a large radius. FCHC claims to have cut 30 units from the building, yet the building's footprint for the remaining 60-70 units was far greater than the plan presented to the City Council for 80-100 units. Due to "newly discovered" easements for power lines, the FCHC building (neatly set close to the bike path and away from the center of the West End Park during the City Council meeting) is now shifted into the middle of the park.

The worst feature is that the building, towering its five stories, has numerous walls immediately adjacent to the park land -- creating a huge fishbowl. Not a single inch buffers the City's park: enormous walls with many windows will loom immediately adjacent -- a New York City park in the midst of the West part of Falls Church. It is a park that people will hate, for it will offer neither peace nor privacy for those who use it.

Kathryn Kleiman; Falls Church