Cotton's ridiculous piece in the Trib -It needn't be this way

Sunday, November 11, 2007
Cotton's ridiculous piece in the Trib
Read this and I'll point out the obvious errors and distortions:

A glimpse at a life in line
For Palestinians, a tense daily grind
By Robert Cotton Fite, an Episcopal priest and clinical psychologist who lives in Wilmette
November 11, 2007
: Waiting in line at a West Bank border checkpoint, intimidated by the prison like atmosphere and frustrated by the Israeli soldier denying me passage back into Israel, I got my first real taste of what it's like most days for thousands of Palestinians. ..I don't yet understand how the Palestinian people endure the oppression of an occupation or what it feels like to be a Palestinian. I could always have returned to Zababdeh, called the American Consulate and gotten out. An ordinary Palestinian would have no such advocate, or even, perhaps, an Israeli friend like Harry. cotton.fite@sbcglobal.net

1. None of this ever needed to happen.
a. Nov 1947 the UN voted to partition Palestine to 2 nations, 1 Jewish 1 Arab. The jews agreed. The Arabs fought to exterminate the Jews.
b. Between 1948-1967 the Jordanians controlled the West Bank and Egypt Gaza. If they cared, they could have, on day 1, created Arab state there. It could now be 60 years old.
2. It need not be now this way. Every Israeli Prime Minister in a decade has tried to create an Arab state but The Palestinians continued to try and kill Israels in Intifada 1 and 2 and now daily missiles fired from Gaza. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, or renounce terror. If the Arabs would be interested in life, instead of death, there would be a State for Arabs there, a 22nd Arab state, asap. When Arabs smuggle weapons in ambulances, masquerading as women wearing full length Arab dress, etc, what can Israel do?

It is too bad the Palestinians are inconvenienced this way. Then don't elect terrorists who want to kill Jews as part of their basic platform.
Simply
1.renounce violence as civilized people do
2.State clearly you support Israel's right to exist
3. root out the violent elements
presto-Palestinian entity

Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg