Sunday, January 31, 2010

Open Letter to Congressman Paul Tonko: You Responded but Did Not Answer

Dear Congressman Tonko,

Thank you for responding to my e-mail concerning your support of the Ellison/McDermott letter, which asks President Obama to ease the "unabated suffering" of Gazan civilians.

In your response, you state:

1. That "1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip face living conditions worse than ever before", and "since the conflict in early 2009, the situation has worsened with Israel restricting the movement of goods and people due to security concerns in the wake of indiscriminate Hamas attacks."

2. That "a refusal to join the international community in providing aid would serve only to further strengthen Hamas to the detriment of peaceful Israeli and Palestinian civilians".

3. That "the Gaza Strip is still run by Hamas, which was democratically elected in early 2006", and "it must be a top priority of any aid effort that funding and supplies do not make their way into the hands of terrorists".

Yet none of the above provides an answer to my question why you signed the Ellison/McDermott letter to President Obama:

1. That makes no mention of the hundreds of Israeli civilians who lost their lives to Hamas suicide bombers, when the Gaza crossings were open, which is again requested in the said letter.

2. That makes no mention of Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier who was abducted by Hamas into Gaza in June 2006 and has never since seen the light of day or been visited by Red Cross officials.

3. That makes no mention that the firing of missiles out of Gaza continues, i.e. attempts to kill Israeli civilians persist.

You acknowledge that the civilian populace of Gaza democratically elected Hamas, whose charter calls for the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel, yet ask that Israel make unilateral concessions such as "plentiful and varied food", "access to fuel and spare parts", "prompt passage for commercial goods", and "easy movement for people into and out of Gaza".

I ask you again, if Washington was under periodic rocket and mortar fire from Gaza and hundreds of Washingtonians had lost their lives to suicide bombers, would you still ask President Obama to provide Gazan civilians with all of the above?

Thank you for your prompt answer, which will be published in my blog.

Yours sincerely,

Jeffrey Grossman

2 comments:

  1. Hi, Jeffrey

    On one hand, he says that "Hamas ... detriment of peaceful ...Palestinian civilians", on another hand, he says: "Hamas...was democratically elected in early 2006". Who are the "peaceful Palestinians"? Where were they during the election? Why israel has to care about them more than majority of Palestinians, who choose war?

    For this guy, the fact that Hamas was democratically elected absolves it from all crimes, rather than criminalizes the Palestinians, who elected them. At the same time, Israel is always a fair target. He admitted just that, by ignoring the most important part of your letter.

    ReplyDelete