Staking a claim
Leo Rozmaryn’s article “Tough conversations needed on Israeli-Palestinian conflict” (Voices, March 28) was excellent in presenting the hypocrisy of many who claim Israel’s presence in the Middle-East is unlawful. Although Rozmaryn outlined the history of many previous unlawful occupations, he didn’t present the most important one vis-a-vis the Middle East — the Arab occupation of Israel. He was in error in his conclusion that the conflict in Israel is “nothing more than a land dispute between two parties with equal narratives.”
The Arabs are no more indigenous to the land of Israel than the Puritans were to New England, as Rozmaryn correctly observed. Arab imperialism or colonialism originated after the death of Mohammad in 632 C.E. Arabs took Jerusalem by the sword in 638 — 642 C.E. The fact that the Jews were driven out of Israel by the Romans in about 135 C.E. does not
obviate the Jews’ prior claim.
It is the Jewish people who have a prior claim. The only people who might legally take issue with this conclusion are the Canaanites who are no longer alive to do so.
KENNETH M. DAVIS
Bethesda
