Seventy-five years after its founding, Israel is flourishing. And as Clifford May notes (“Israel’s 75th birthday: Despite endless war, Jewish state survives and even thrives,” web, May 9), this is particularly miraculous when one considers the threats that the Jewish state has faced.
For more than seven decades, the Israel-Islamist conflict has ground on, with terrorists determined to deny the Jewish people sovereignty in their ancestral homeland. This was the terrorists’ goal in 1948, and it remains their objective in 2023.
Terrorist groups such as Hamas and Fatah consider all of Israel to be a “settlement.” Their media, school textbooks and leaders routinely say as much. Yet on this score, it is the West that often fails to listen.
Mainstream media outlets routinely omit the numerous instances of Palestinian leadership rejecting Palestinian statehood if it means peace with and recognition of Israel. By highlighting such statements, Mr. May correctly places the onus for the conflict’s continuation right where it belongs: with Palestinian leaders, whose preference for war over peace remains both unbroken and undeniable.
Sean Durns
Washington D.C.
The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for the Committee for Accuray in Middle East Reporting and Analysis
(Note: A slightly different version of this letter appeared in the Washington Times on May 11, 2023)