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KC Star "Palestinians have failed themselves" overlooks indiscriminate civilian attacks and collective punishment
-- Write Letters to The Kansas City Star

The Issue:

The September 12 editorial in the Kansas City Star fails to identify Israel as the cause for widespread destruction in Gaza where "economic conditions have deteriorated, violence has continued". KC Star readers are urged to urgently write a letter to counter the misinformation in the editorial. Use your voice to urge restraint and for conflict resolution, not military campaigns without end!

The editorials fails to acknowledge that when Palestinian militants captured a single Israeli soldier, the entire Gaza population is punished through the destruction of infrastructure, including bridges and power plants, severing access to clean water and sanitation. In the two weeks prior to the capture of the Israeli soldier, 35 Palestinians were killed including 10 children, 120 wounded including 44 children.

bullet Please write a letter with 150 words or less to the editor of the Kansas City Star . Send letters to letters@kcstar.com  or leave a comment for Voices in the Kansas City Star, call (816) 234-4493. Send an email to info@cjme.org mentioning if you followed up otherwise, either by sending your own draft of a letter or phoning the Star.
bullet Remember: The Star does pay attention to the quality and quantity of letters on significant issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Please spend some time to write a letter.

 BACKGROUND - Points you can make in a letter or call:

The indiscriminate Israeli attacks violate international human rights law:

  • Gideon Levy in the daily Israeli Haaretz writes, the Israeli army "has been rampaging through Gaza - there's no other word to describe it - killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately".
  • The Israeli military and economic siege of Gaza has led to a collapse in Palestinian living conditions, forcing Palestinians to scavenge for food. "The pressure and tactics have not resulted in a desire for compromise," Karen Abuzayd, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency is said to have warned. "But rather they have created mass despair, anger and a sense of hopelessness and abandonment."
  • "Women in Gaza tell me they are eating only one meal a day, bread with tomatoes or cheap vegetables," said Kirstie Campbell of the UN's World Food Programme, which is feeding 235,000 people. She added that in June, since when the crisis has worsened, some 70 per cent of people in Gaza could not meet their family's food needs. "People are raiding garbage dumps," she said.
  • Israel remains in control of Gaza's borders and airspace and confined 1.3 million Palestinians to a prison-like existence.
  • Israel retains control of the movement of all goods and people into and out of Gaza.
  • Patrick Cockburn with the Independent (UK) writes: "Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur every day by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June, says Dr Juma al-Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 women. This bloody conflict in Gaza has so far received only a fraction of the attention given by the international media to the war in Lebanon." One Israeli has been killed by Palestinian forces during this time.
  • According to Patrick Cockburn, a journalist with The Independent (UK), based in Jerusalem "The quickest way to alleviate the crisis would be for Israel to allow the Rafah crossing into Egypt to reopen, according to the mayor of Gaza City. But any restoration of the economy would require the reopening of the other crossing points at Erez and Karni."
  • The US-backed "Roadmap to Peace" outlines steps for improving both Palestinian and Israeli lives, starting with a reduction in violence and freezing settlements. The US should press Israel and Palestinians to negotiate a resolution to the conflict.

- Background information from articles written by Patrick Cockburn, The Independent (UK), based in Jerusalem

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. Write a letter no longer than 150 words to the Kansas City Star responding to the content of the editorial appearing in the September 12, 2006 issue.

Kansas City Star -- E-mail: letters@kcstar.com

Readers' Representative Phone: (816) 234-4487

2. Make a donation to support humanitarian efforts to provision the Gaza Strip with much-needed medical supplies for Palestinian children. The Middle East Children's Alliance, a member organization of the US Campaign, is accepting tax-deductible donations to send medical supplies. Click here to donate: http://www.mecaforpeace.org/GazaMeds.html

3. Send an email to info@cjme.org and let us know that you responded to this alert.

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Editorial - Kansas City Star, Sep. 12, 2006

Hamas must end terrorism to gain international support
Palestinians have failed themselves

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/opinion/15495423.htm

A year after Israel removed its settlements from the Gaza Strip, the hopes of Palestinians have long since given way to despair. There’s no secret why; the terrorist organization Hamas won the Palestinian elections early this year.

Since then economic conditions have deteriorated, violence has continued, and Hamas leaders point accusing fingers at Israel, the United States, Europe, the larger international community … everyone but themselves.

A year ago, donors and countries around the world stood ready to help finance reconstruction and economic development in Gaza — the foundation, perhaps, for a Palestinian state.

But the potential funders drew back in disgust when Palestinian voters threw their support to Hamas.

Many Palestinians explained that they backed Hamas to protest corruption in the Palestinian Authority, not to reward and encourage terrorism.

But the election turned Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian president, into little more than a figurehead. The voting also torpedoed hopes for constructive talks and economic dealings with Israel.

It’s been a tough lesson in democracy for average Palestinians: Whom you vote for matters.

This week, British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with Abbas to explore possible ways to move forward before the next Palestinian election.

There is talk of forming a “unity government” for the Palestinians, presumably to boost the authority of Abbas.

Hamas leaders agreed in principle to this idea in June. The problem is that they also did something else that month: They sent gunmen tunneling into Israel to attack Israeli soldiers and take one of them hostage.

Given that recent history, it is hard to see the “unity government” idea as anything more than a phony public relations effort.

Hamas must abandon terrorism and renounce the goal of Israel’s destruction. Otherwise it can hardly expect much sympathy or support from the international community, including the United States.