DIALOG.......................
March 20, 2002
Honorable Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations
Dear Mr. Secretary:
Your letter to Prime Minister Sharon was profoundly disappointing. I fear that your castigation of Israel does not strengthen the search for peace, but, to the contrary, further distances that day.
It is not that everything that Israel does is beyond reproach. Perhaps you are correct that on certain specific instances Israel could have acted differently. Certainly the Palestinian people are enduring great hardship, a fact that pains people of good will everywhere.
Your letter, however, suffers from moral ambiguity that is, at best, counterproductive, and at worst, indulges terrorism and evil. You point out, disapprovingly, the military measures that Israel has employed without mentioning the context of these measures. Is it that Israel woke up one day and decided to do as much harm to the Palestinians as possible? Did Israel initiate the fighting? Was there not a reasonable peace proposal on the table at Camp David that the Palestinians should have either accepted, or at least countered with their own proposals?
You write that "Israel is fully entitled to defend itself against terror," but then criticize the fighting as resembling all-out conventional warfare.
What military means are you proposing that Israel should exercise in self-defense? Perhaps if you were to offer a few military tactics that you consider legitimate, we might better understand your viewpoint. There is a degree of hypocrisy at work in condemning Israel's military measures without offering alternatives, especially, when, as you say, Israel is entitled to self-defense. Even regarding what you write as the "failure to protect and respect ambulances and medical personnel," it is disturbing that you fail to note the context that ambulances are being used to transport arms and terrorists. Of course the prevention of ambulances from reaching their destination is profoundly unsettling. This is precisely the reason that terrorists hide behind medical personnel, children and pregnant women. They know that civilized people are reluctant to harm medical facilities, houses of worship and innocent bystanders. It is for this reason that Sadaam Hussein has built weapons in hospitals and Palestinian terrorists hide in schools and churches. But do you not recognize at all - not even a little bit - the moral dilemma of a soldier confronting an ambulance speeding towards him in a context where soldiers have been shot from ambulances by terrorists? Have you exercised your moral authority to urge Palestinians to refrain from using ambulances from which to attack Jews? If so, we have not heard you clearly.
It is acutely tragic that innocent people die in justifiable wars of self-defense. Thousands of innocent civilians died during the Gulf War and the wars in Kosovo and Afghanistan, all supported by the United Nations. While deeply lamenting these deaths they were viewed in the larger context. The purpose of the military activities was to destroy terrorism and evil.
This then is the most disturbing part of your letter. By communicating exclusively with Prime Minister Sharon, and failing to adequately emphasize the context Israel finds itself in, or sufficiently sympathizing with its predicament and ultimate goals, you have failed the moral test of your position and lent support and comfort to terrorists. Terrorists everywhere are encouraged by your criticism of Israel. It strengthens their conviction that terrorism works. "Even the Secretary General of the United Nations bends under our pressure," they say. This is all the more disturbing when the world is waging an international war on terrorism that will be lost if we do not maintain moral clarity and resolve.
You should be using your moral authority to condemn terrorism. Israel is a tiny democracy that is trying to defend itself against radical evil. It deserves your support, not your condemnation. It deserves your sympathy.
We deserve and expect you to be outspoken and indignant in your condemnation of Palestinian terrorism and your insistence that terrorism cannot and should not be rewarded. Israel is a peace-loving nation. There would be no bombers or helicopters in the skies of the West Bank and Gaza if the Palestinians were not endlessly attacking Israeli civilians. Where is the moral outrage of the United Nations that Israelis are being slaughtered? Today there was another horrific terrorist attack on an Israeli bus. Have you convened the General Assembly to condemn this inhumanity? Have you even sent a letter to Chairman Arafat expressing your disgust?
Arafat and the Palestinian Authority would have long ago ceased their barbaric campaign against Israel had the United Nations and the civilized nations of the world insisted on giving no quarter to the terrorist means they have adopted. By appeasing terrorists the United Nations has, in fact, encouraged and prolonged terrorism. Terrorists worldwide have been inspired by, and have perfected the suicidal proclivities and techniques of, Palestinian terrorists.
Look at how poisoned the minds of Palestinians have become. In a recent survey, 87% of Palestinians favor continuing terrorist attacks. The death of a teenage girl in Kfar Sava this week boosted the morale of Palestinians, said one of their spokesmen. This is what passes now for a "legitimate struggle against Israel's occupation." ("Occupation" is another dubious description of the true status of Israel's presence in the territories, that fails to take into account the context of international law, or that Israel found itself in these territories in the first place because its Arab neighbors attacked it.)
Mr. Secretary, I write to you out of a liberal religious conviction that assumes and believes in the redeeming power of change. I believe that people and societies can change for the better. I supported the peace process from its inception because it appeared to me that Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian society he leads were prepared to abandon their terrorist ways and live side-by-side with Israel in peace. I still believe this is possible, but only if we are strong and resolute. Terrorism cannot be accommodated. Terrorism cannot be appeased. Terrorism must be defeated.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch
Executive Director,
Association of Reform Zionists of America and World Union for Progressive
Judaism, North America