To the Editor:
Alaa Al Aswany says that the only way the Arab street, particularly in Cairo, will hear Barack Obama is if our new president recognizes “the right of people in an occupied territory to resist military occupation.”
But it was precisely when Israel ended its occupation of Gaza that Hamas increased its rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
Did Dr. Al Aswany forget that Egypt occupied Gaza between 1949 and 1967? I doubt that the Cairo street would have tolerated rocket attacks from occupied Gaza against Egyptian civilian targets.
If the price of the Arab street hearing President Obama is to accept terrorism against civilians as a “right” of formerly occupied people, then it is too high a price to pay.
In America, we have a word for what Israel did to prevent Hamas from playing Russian roulette with the lives of its children. We call it self-defense, as Mr. Obama recognized when he, then a presidential candidate, stood in front of Hamas rockets in Sderot and said: “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”
Alan Dershowitz
Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 8, 2009
The writer is a professor of law at Harvard University.
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To the Editor:
Alaa Al Aswany accurately sums up the feeling among a vast majority of politically aware Muslims around the world. Interviews to Arabic television channels are no substitutes for actions and policies that break with the past. Such public diplomacy is in fact patronizing and, therefore, insulting because it underestimates the political acumen of the Muslim public.
That the new administration will be no different from its predecessors is borne out not only by President Obama’s stance during the Israeli invasion of Gaza, but also by news filtering out of Washington about key appointments about to be made to deal with crucial Middle Eastern actors and issues.
The torpedoing of Gen. Anthony C. Zinni’s appointment as ambassador to Iraq is one indication of the new president’s tendency to allow the “old hands” to make decisions when it comes to the Middle East. His presidency does not bode well for America’s relations with the Muslim world.
Mohammed Ayoob
East Lansing, Mich., Feb. 8, 2009
The writer is the coordinator of the Muslim Studies Program at Michigan State University.
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To the Editor:
Alaa Al Aswany seems to assume that because President Obama said that he would listen to the Muslim world, he would make a public statement condemning Israel’s actions and acknowledging Hamas’s actions as appropriate. This assumption was wrong.
Egypt’s frustration with Mr. Obama’s decision not to stop the “massacre” in Gaza is unwarranted. Israel, along with every other country, has the obligation to protect its citizens. Israel’s actions were completely justified, and America appropriately supported Israel.
In saying, “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers,” Mr. Obama meant that we are a nation that respects the “other.” When Hamas is prepared to talk instead of fire rockets, then Mr. Obama’s words will have equal meaning in Gaza.
Jacquie Zaluda
Highland Park, Ill., Feb. 8, 2009
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To the Editor:
If President Obama wants to be heard by Muslims, he must strip away the politics and honestly answer the question: “What’s the moral justification for the dispossession of the Palestinians from Palestine by the Israelis that has gone on systematically since 1948?” And then he must act on it.
Lowell Johnston
New York, Feb. 8, 2009
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To the Editor:
In his article about the latest war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Alaa Al Aswany asserts, “I don’t know what you call it in other languages, but in Egypt we call this a massacre.” He then urges President Obama to condemn Israel “if only with simple words.”
I can well understand Dr. Al Aswany’s frustration. But what would Egypt then call the unprovoked action of Hamas, which sent thousands of rockets into sovereign Israeli civilian territory? To me, that sounds a lot like terrorism.
If the so-called moderate Muslim world would like to hear condemnation from our new president, then perhaps the blame should go both ways!
(Rabbi) Michael StangerOld Westbury, N.Y., Feb. 8, 2009
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