If You Don’t Have Logic …

At first I was highly incensed by Edward LeHoskey's attack on me personally in his July 5 Voice article, "I'm Not Anti-Israel." His closing sentence was: "I wonder where your loyalties lie." How dare he impugn my loyalty and love of America? I twice enlisted in the U.S. Army and I've got red, white and blue bunting and decals all over my house and cars.

After reflection, though, I changed my attitude and became quite happy that he had engaged in this grossly unjustified insult. You see, I remember that when I studied logic in college, my professor once remarked that if you are in a debate and don't have a valid argument, there are still two things you can do. If you don't have logic on your side, then you raise your voice and you ignore the subject you're debating and attack your opponent personally. (This is known as the ad hominem argument.) So thank you, Mr. LeHoskey, for the attack. You've convinced me (and no doubt, others) of the weakness of your position.

Just to set the record straight, Mr. LeHoskey, your claim that our elected officials support Israel in order to get the Jewish vote falls flat on its face when you look at the facts. In May of this year the Senate voted overwhelmingly (94-2) on a resolution backing Israel, and this was immediately followed by the House vote, 352-21. Do you think that this solid support was based solely on the number of votes it would generate? Then how do you explain the fact that senators from states with very little Jewish constituency are strong Israel supporters?

Can you accuse pro-Israel Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) of catering to the Jewish vote? The total Jewish population of all of Hawaii is currently a meager 5,000 people, which includes non-voters. How about Mitch McConnell (R-KY), or Max Baucus (D-MT), or Ted Stevens (R-AK), or Tom Daschle, (D-SD)? How about Jesse Helms from North Carolina? These people are all solidly behind Israel and come from states not known for an influential Jewish vote. Newt Gingrich is long out of office but still continues his lifelong support of Israel, often appearing on cable news programs to express this viewpoint.

As I wrote in a previous article, the men and women legislators who so solidly support Israel do so out of conviction that what they are doing is in America's best interests, and because they believe it's the right thing to do. As I also wrote, anyone (including you, Mr. LeHoskey), can write to these people and ask them the reason they vote this way.

As for the rest of the tired arguments you brought up, as well as those of Anthony Accetta [Israel—Liability or Asset?, July 5], these are typically made by people who are anti-Israel, despite your denials. "Cut militarily aid to Israel" is your mantra. If Israel were militarily weakened, as you both so strongly advocate, then it would not be long before massive Arab armies invade Israel and there would be a bloodbath. Is this what you want?

You brought up the Liberty affair with the implication that Israel deliberately killed 34 Americans. This charge also shows anti-Israeli bias; otherwise, why would you mention it? There were thirteen official inquiries into the Liberty incident, ten here and three in Israel, and all thirteen came to the same conclusion, that this was an unintended tragic accident. (Tragic accidents do indeed occur in wartime. Just look at current headlines.) Both you and Mr. Accetta also referred to the Jonathan Pollard affair. There is one thing to remember, however: Jonathan Pollard was not spying against the United States, he was spying for Israel, to help them in their fight against terrorism. He was also never charged with spying, but with furnishing information to a foreign government, a much lesser charge.

And finally, although there is still much more to write about, both of you gentlemen should remember that Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton offered the Palestinians at Camp David virtually everything they were demanding, and they were turned down by Yasser Arafat. If Arafat had accepted, there would now be peace in the Middle East, with the Palestinians in their own state, with their capitol in East Jerusalem, and with the vast majority of the settlements removed.