Just once I’d like to hear Carl Doerner explain why he thinks Israel is obligated to make concessions to the Palestinians as long as the Palestinian government in Gaza — HAMAS — remains committed to Israel’s destruction as stated in the HAMAS Covenant (Charter) and is sworn to replace it with a Muslim theocracy over all of geographical Palestine. For all of Doerner’s admirable dreams of ending apartheid in Israel and Palestine, I can’t imagine a more constitutionally committed program to creating and maintaining apartheid and exclusion than HAMAS’ Islamic theocratic charter.
Sad to say, but Palestinians and their Arab neighbors have through hostility to Israel energetically contributed to the creation of their own miserable fates. Israel’s presence in the region, albeit the result of Western colonial machinations, remains the Palestinians’ best hope for an identity and a state of their own. If surrounding Arab states had wanted a Palestinian state, why didn’t they create one when they had the chance before attacking Israel in 1967 (that’s when Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt Gaza)?
Ted Thornton
Northfield