County guilty of censorship

Editor, The Times:

Thanks for publishing the recent op-ed piece by Ed Mast [“‘Israel right or wrong’ crowd advocates censorship in Seattle,” guest commentary, Opinion, Jan. 1].

It is pathetic to see members of the Israel-first community bullying King County into submission and censorship of free speech. We American taxpayers are complicit in Israeli war crimes and we have a right to know this. Our free speech and democracy are being systematically undermined.

Our reputation around the world is systematically deteriorating due to our codependent relationship with the out-of-control Jewish Supremacist Apartheid State of Israel. It is time we got back to freedom of expression, liberty and justice for all —including Palestinians.

— Bill Dienst, Omak

Bus ads supported anti-Israeli radicalism

It’s ironic that Edward Mast cries censorship when his anti-Israel bus ads aren’t being run. For Mast, every opponent is a Zionist conspirator; every defeat is further proof of the nefarious grip on power of the other side. He cannot fathom why American public opinion overwhelmingly supports Israel over the Palestinians.

Mast lives in an Orwellian world where Hamas, whose political platform is Jihadist terror against civilians, plays the good guy. He labels Israel, which fights Islamic terrorism, and stands for the American values of freedom, democracy and human rights, as a terrorist state. While he frames his arguments in the cloak of morality, it is a thin veneer based on backward logic.

If Mast were really interested in the welfare of the Palestinian people, he would work toward building acceptance among the Arab world and toward reconciliation and coexistence with Israel. Israel has shown time and again its willingness to make peace with former enemies. What’s needed is less anti-Israel rhetoric and more promotion of peace between two peoples.

— Randy Kessler, Mercer Island

Bus ads served informative purpose

Thank you for publishing Ed Mast’s op-ed on the bus ad proposed by the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign that aims to alert the public about important information which gets little exposure: the U.S. funds and abets the war crimes of Israel.

The majority of people in this country are not aware of the true facts on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel’s colonization project requires the purposeful brutalization of the Palestinians, to try to push them off their land, with the aim of annexing the West Bank for itself. This requires the use of disproportionate force designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population not just in attacks, like the aptly named Operation Cast Lead of two years ago, but on a daily basis.

As Mast points out, many Jews are appalled and are speaking out to try to stop this. To say that criticism of Israel is anti-Jewish is a racist statement in itself, as it implies that all Jews think alike.

It is disheartening that the intimidation tactics of those who want a Greater Israel at any cost were again able to silence dissent of this morally reprehensible project. Yet it is not surprising given Israel’s unparalleled influence on our Congress, foreign policy and media.

— Suzanne Oelke, Seattle

Anti-Israeli propaganda

Edward Mast’s op-ed piece scales the heights of demagoguery.

Mast blithely states, “Violations by Palestinians in their struggle for self-determination have also been documented, though violations by Israel are far more numerous and far less reported in this country.” Not only is this statement an outright fabrication, it is a shameless attempt to legitimize the Palestinians’ acts of terror against Israeli citizens in their so-called “struggle for self-determination.” What is the purpose of Palestinian rocket attacks if not to “punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population”? Israel’s actions have only been in response to such attacks and can, therefore, only be seen as acts of self-defense.

Rest assured, if the Palestinians would refrain from such activities, there would be no cause for Israel to do anything at all.

Taking a page straight out of Josef Goebbel’s propaganda manifesto, Mast and his ilk believe that if they tell a lie long and loudly enough, it will manifestly become a fact. The Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign seeks nothing short of the dismantling of the Jewish State of Israel and it will do and say whatever it needs to in order to achieve its aim; facts be damned. Make no mistake, it is not Israel’s defenders who fear an open debate on this matter, it is Mast. There are a number of people in our community who would want nothing more than to engage him in a moderated public debate. Rather, Mast prefers to resort to his cowardly guerrilla tactics of lobbing his lies and innuendo over the transom and then stealing away undercover to plan his next attack.

— Andy Krasnow, Seattle

Call for honest discussion about Israeil-Palistinian conflict

I have been following the controversy surrounding the “anti-Israel” ads that were to be placed on Seattle’s Metro buses. I am truly dismayed at the hubbub around it and especially the decision not to place those ads on Metro buses.

Just as we, as a society, need to have a truly honest discussion regarding race in America, we truly need to have an honest discussion about the relationship between Israel, its neighbors and the role the U.S. should play in the Middle East. Sadly and unfortunately we are unwilling to do either.

The ads that were to be placed on Metro buses have, as it should have, sparked a dialogue about Israel’s policies toward its neighbors and U.S. policies toward Israel. Not everything that criticizes Israel’s policies is anti-Semitic. Not everything that criticizes U.S. policies is anti- United States. Let us not confuse criticizing Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank with being anti-Semitic.

Israel needs to recognize it does not live in an isolated time and place. With the information systems we have in place in this modern era, the whole world can see what is happening in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Many people believe Israel has “legally” enacted Apartheid against the Palestinian people. Many people believe Israel’s incursions and bombings of Gaza and the West Bank are justified. However, the majority of the world does not see Israel as justified in taking these actions.

The framers of the modern state of Israel either never considered the consequences of sacrificing the Palestinians so Jewish people could live without fear of another Holocaust, such as the one inflicted by the Nazi’s, or didn’t care about the consequences that would ensue by favoring, and thereby sacrificing, one people over another. The framers of modern Israel should have done a better job. They didn’t, so we must. To do that, we must have honest discussions regarding the whole area of the Middle East and our nation’s relationship with that area. Then maybe we can move forward without fear of acts of violence against any peoples.

— Frances Rosenstein Alexander, Seattle