Israel and Palestine

READING James Wall's March 22 column ("Israel's nonsacrifice") immediately after returning from a visit to Israel, I was struck by the disparity between the perspective he offered and the reality I had just witnessed.

Israel's upcoming disengagement from Gaza will mark a historic turning point. While there are sharp political differences in Israel about the settlements, practically no one disputes the fact that disengagement will be a wrenching experience for the Israelis being removed from Gaza, who have built homes and raised families there for up to three generations. There are security risks as well, since Gaza houses some of the Palestinian terror groups most hostile to Israel's very existence. While the majority of Israelis nevertheless support disengagement, the planned move is exacerbating deep societal rifts and threatening to bring internal disorder.

Commentators cite the precedent-setting nature of the disengagement. They see Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, once the champion of the settler movement, turning away from that political base and breaking with much of his own party in withdrawing from Gaza and dismantling a number of settlements in the West Bank. Meanwhile, in the post-Arafat era, the Palestinians are able to free themselves from stultifying corruption and the self-destructive embrace of an ideology of martyrdom. With the Palestinian leadership being looked to to dismantle the infrastructure of terror once and for all, Sharon's initiative could be a catalyst for significant movement toward a two-state resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Readers of the CHRISTIAN CENTURY who rely on pieces like Wall's March 22 column to understand what is going on Hill have a limited means of recognizing all of this. Using loaded language that distorts and inflames, the column is cynical about Israel's readiness to take painful, risky and divisive steps, and silent about the need for the Palestinians to take potentially divisive steps of their own. Anyone who hopes to see a peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict that is fair to both sides and reflects prevailing realities would do well to look elsewhere to learn what is indeed happening in that tragically tortured part of the world sacred to the three Abrahamic faiths.

Michael C. Kotzin

Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation

of Metropolitan Chicago,

Chicago, Ill.

COPYRIGHT 2005 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning