The following is the unabridged version of a letter by the President of the Ottawa Muslim Coordinating Council to the Editor of the Ottawa Citizen. It was written in response to the Ottawa Citizen editorial of June 4 entitled, "Lose-lose for Israel".  

               
Editor, Ottawa Citizen

Your editorial makes two valid points: That the violent confrontation on the Mediterranean does not further the cause of peace, and that the incident puts Israel in a lose-lose situation.

Other than that, the editorial has an Alice in Wonderland quality. It blames Arab-Muslim leaders, Hamas, Turkey, radical Islamic elements, the “army of Muhammad” arriving to kill Jews and just about everybody else. Only Israel, with the only nuclear arsenal in the region and with the strongest armed forces in the area, is blameless, the innocent and helpless victim of Muslims-Arabs whose only purpose in life seems to be to hate Israelis without any cause or reason.

You even justify Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza since 1997. By your logic, Israel’s neighbors would be justified in imposing a siege on Israel, allowing only foodstuffs and some medicines in, with no exports allowed, because otherwise Israel would get military equipment including jets and rockets that it launches against the Palestinians and the Lebanese. But of course an accurate analysis wouldn’t do, given your mantra that Israel has done and can do no wrong and it is simply the innocent victim of hateful Palestinians living in refugee camps or in crowded slums under the direct or indirect control of Israeli armed forces. Only limited food and some supplies are allowed into Gaza and no exports are permitted. Yet the ungrateful Gazans, and other Muslims-Arabs, hate Israel instead of loving it for its benevolence.  

You mention Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza a few years ago but ignore the fact that it still controls the territory militarily, that it has built and maintains illegal settlements that are guarded by Israeli military forces and that it does the same thing on the West Bank and that Palestinians live under severe restrictions in their own homeland. You state that Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, is dedicated to Israel’s destruction. You have ignored the offer that Hamas has made for an indefinite truce with Israel that Israel has rejected.

For all the “hatred of Israel” that you harp on, Arabs have indicated repeatedly that they are prepared to make a just peace with Israel that recognizes the rights of the Palestinians and Israelis alike. The Saudis have often put forward their peace proposal that would replace conflict with peace and hate with neighborly cooperation. Israel has been spurning these overtures, egged on by some western politicians and media whose concern for truth, human rights, democracy and justice comes to an abrupt halt when it comes to the Palestinians.

The situation in the Middle East is indeed tragic – for the Palestinians, in particular, Arabs in general and even for the Israelis who have more to gain by a just peace than by a confrontation that undermines their own values and imperils their long-term welfare and success. You can blame Arab-Muslim leaders all you like. And they are to blame to a considerable extent. But the road to a just peace in the Middle East is being blocked by Israel. No amount of convoluted logic on your part can change that – or brainwash people around the world who are increasingly making up their own minds based on facts rather than on the media’s distortions.

-       Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan, C.M., Ottawa