To your rhetorical question concluding your lead editorial, “Settlements as Punishment?”(Sept. 11) – “All things considered, was it really necessary?” – let me offer a resounding yes. It’s not politics but uncommon courage for at least one country in the Middle East and perhaps the world to play it straight. Prime Minister Netanyahu has provided us all with a “teachable moment,” that the continued development and construction of eretz Yisrael, particularly in contiguous neighborhoods, is not the obstruction to peace with Israel’s neighbors. It, together with the development of the Negev and the re-development of the North, is the fulfillment of the miracle of the state of Israel.
As al-Qaida captures the Golan, Hamas retains and rearms with rockets to fire at its choosing, Judea and Samaria become more restive, Hezbollah waits with 100,000 rockets, and the United States, and its allies with anti-Semitic populations, prepare to sell out to an incipiently nuclear Iran – does this newspaper truly pretend that settlements, as pejoratively defined by the world, are the impediments to peace?
Please let me know when the WJW’s new address is J Street so that I can cancel my subscription.
BARUCH A. FELLNER
Washington, D.C.
