Intellectual honesty, please

Letters

Editor: Regarding Aaron Maté's letter ("Concordia and anti-Semitism," Bulletin, Dec. 6), every decent human being is heartbroken to see how the Palestinian populations have suffered since the beginning of the intifada. It is appalling that the Palestinian leadership has brought their people to this situation by initiating their repulsive campaign of terror. Israel doesn't fight against an enemy that is struggling to better the lives of its people but rather against a military that is hiding among civilians. Even more so, the Palestinian tragedy is their willingness to send children to their deaths in return for political gain.

I am not sure where the good-hearted activists were when, in two instances not so many years back, Jordan and Syria killed tens of thousands of their Palestinian brothers during Black September and the Hama massacre? Were Stephen Aberle, Maté, Svend Robinson and their consorts upsetting campuses and writing to editors? I doubt it! On the other hand, during the Second World War, the British bombed Dresden in Germany, killing tens of thousands of civilians and the United States dropped the A-Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These extreme military actions created lots of controversy but the result was to reduce casualties in the Allies' camp by shortening the war. I believe it is the ultimate responsibility of leaders to protect their citizens. Interestingly, neither the Americans nor the British were accused of being bloodthirsty, right-wing fascists. Clearly there is a double standard when Israel is the involved.

I wonder what credentials Maté can present to support his expert opinion on the psychoanalytic reasons why Jews are attached to Israel and "close off their consciences from recognizing the terrible atrocities committed in their name." What is he actually talking about? However, his point is clear, to try to delegitimize Israel's existence. Maté's conception of the law is equally interesting. He explains that brutally interrupting Binyamin Netanyahu's freedom of speech is "nowhere near as unlawful and confrontational as is commonly perceived." He must be joking!

Finally, the vice-president of the Concordia Students Union is insulting our intelligence by stating that the vast majority of Palestinians and the pro-Palestinian movements do oppose anti-Semitism. Must the Bulletin's readers also be made to swallow that the anti-Semitism fed to children by the Palestinian Authority starting from preschool has no effect on Palestinian behavior?

Read the papers and watch your television screen, Maté. Is Egyptian television's running of a series about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion meant to serve simply as a background for student debates about anti-Semitism? I don't think so.

Maté comments that he abhors, nevertheless, the anti-Semitic views of some of his acolytes. He knows very well, however, how easy it is to convince us of his intellectual honesty. If he truly opposes anti-Semitism as he claims, perhaps then he can prove it by taking action to confront it, rather than defending those who promote it in its repugnant form.

Georges Sommer
Richmond

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