Sample Letters

Here follow some sample letters as well as copies of letters that were sent by Take-a-Pen members.
 

Sample Letter on Targeted Killings

To: (editor or politician)

In your article/paper......you strongly criticised Israel's targeted killings and called them 'assassination'.

I think there is a very important point you are missing, that Israel is coping with a most irregular and inhuman kind of warfare.  Israel's enemies transgressed all the traditional and legal 'rules of war', by e.g. attacking without the accepted rules of engagement, by not identifying themselves as combatants - both by not using uniforms and by hiding their weapons, by attacking  while disguised in Israeli army uniforms or in Israeli civilian garment, and worst: by deliberately targeting civilians.

Deliberate targeting of civilians is, by definition, terrorism. The problem is much bigger than the whole Israeli Arab conflict, from 9/11 to Bali, and certainly not Israel's alone to solve. All the countries suffering from terrorism against their civilians have a problem how to deal with it. Terror's methods are new in the last more civilized century and can be compared only to the methods of the pirates centuries ago. To demand from ourselves full compliance with the Geneva conventions against such methods would only help terrorists. What the world successfully did once to eradicate piracy is much more relevant against terrorism too:  to declare them out of the law, where it is a merit to eliminate them, at all times, in any place and by all means.

On this way of protecting humankind an international consensus is needed, including, Sir, Yourself. Without this global terrorism will continue growing.

E.N.
Pinner
London
Back
 
 
Letter 1
 
To the Editor:
Dear Sir,
Sub: Abu Shanab
 
Your writer, in the name of sanctity of life,  referred negatively to the recent operation in which Israeli security forces killed Abu Shanab, a Hamas leader with the blood of many Israelis on his hands. This operation took place only two days after the Hamas and Islamic Jihad bombed a bus in Jerusalem (19 August) and murdered 20 Israeli civilians,  including  seven  children, the youngest 11 months old, and wounded  more than  120 , 40 of them children.
Do the killers of this twenty deserve sympathy? Not mine.
Exactly because I respect the sanctity of life I support Israel's policy of such targeted killings.  
I believe that terrorists must be sent a clear message that the civilized world will not tolerate, under any pretext, the deliberate taking of innocent lives.  
After that horrific bomb attack in Jerusalem, after the US, UK many more civilized countries recognized Hamas as a terrorist organization. Abu Shanab, Hamas' # 3 man, was a leader  in  building their terror infrastructure, and initiated  several actual acts of terror. He never missed an opportunity in front of the cameras to denounce peaceful co-existence with Israel, focused on incitement to murder,  and  acted to send suicide bombers to kill as many Israeli  civilians as possible .
Security forces in every civilized country in the world would be applauded, and rightly so, for the elimination of such a monster.
 
Respectfully,

 
Letter 2
To :  Mr. Fraser Steel, Head of Programme complaints at the BBC 
Subject :  BBC Radio 4’s News on 9th November 2002
 
Dear Mr Steel
BBC Radio 4’s 1pm News on 9th November 2002 had a report concerning the shooting of a leading member of Islamic Jihad. 
The report described Islamic Jihad as a “militant organisation”. Islamic Jihad is a TERRORIST organisation as defined in UK legislation (see The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2001.
The report, therefore, was factually incorrect and I would like your assurance, in writing, that this will be corrected on future broadcasts.  At the time of writing, it is still incorrect on your on-line service.

Yours Sincerely

M.O.
 
Letter 3
To :  Drew Fagan and Editors of the Globe&Mail
Subject :  D. Fagan 12Nov: Suicide bombings are suicidal for the Palestinian cause
Thank you for your outstanding exposé of the revolting ideology which attempts to justify lethal Palestinian violence against innocent Israelis (such as led to the slaughter from zero range last week at Kibbutz Metzer of a young mother, Revital Ohayon, along with her two sons 5-year-old Matan and 4-year-old Noam, as the boys lay in their beds beneath an oversize stuffed Winnie the Pooh bear and a Bugs Bunny night light).

Indeed, "Violence against civilians can never be defended, whether on the basis that the civilians may be army reservists, or against settlers on the basis of where they live... International law defines those who perpetrate these atrocities as criminals..."

With Sincere Gratitude,
D.G.
Toronto

 
Letter 4
To :  the NYTimes 
Subject :  Sharon Gets His Chance to Fail, NYT,3 Nov.2002, byYossi Beilin
 
Dear NYT Editor,

One may believe that an Israeli view on Israel's affairs may help you to get a real insight to our life, problems and efforts. But publishing Mr. Beilin's article on Prime Minister Sharon's policy was as irrelevant a choice, to what really happens in Israel, as would, let's say, Mr. Farrakhan's views on President Bush's policy represent what Americans are really thinking.
Mr. Beilin is of course entitled to any personal view, but he misleads your readers when he writes among others that : "The national unity government in Israel was wrong from the start, though many Israelis have tried to deny this". The overwhelming majority here have supported the idea and practice of national unity government from the beginning and until now. Israel believed, like the US does, that against terror we have to fight. We can negotiate only when acceptable Palestinian representatives replace Arafat. Recent polls confirm that no more than 15% of the Israelis are against the idea of national unity government even today, when the Labor Party walked out.
Most of the other "facts" and figures of Mr. Beilin were also untrue, and in addition very immodest, like this one: "After most of the highest ranking Knesset members from the Labor Party had resigned from the Knesset or refused to serve in a government under Mr. Sharon,..." In fact that 'highest-ranking' resigner was Mr. Beilin himself while his "group of back-benchers" have been Shimon Peres as Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Labor Party's elected leader Benjamin Ben-Eliezer as Minister of Defense.
I'd like to suggest to the NYT that you enable your readers to hear such Israelis who more or less represent the collective wisdom of the Israeli people.

E.M.
Haifa, Israel
 
Letter 5
To :  the NYTimes 
Subject :  R. Malley, "Playing Into Sharon's Hands", 
NYTimes, 25 Jan 2002
 
Dear Sir,

You credit Arafat as "the first Palestinian leader to recognize Israel, relinquish the objective of regaining all of historic Palestine and negotiate for a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 boundaries". Nonsense! Arafat's shameless proclamations to Western media that he recognizes Israel notwithstanding, his official PA-sponsored media, clergy, and schooltexts continue to call in Arabic for the annihilation of Israel and the genocidal murder of all Jews (in direct violation of Arafat's written Oslo commitments). And although he talked about changing it, Arafat's official Fatah charter still has not been amended, and still calls for the "complete... eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence", and states that "Armed struggle... will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated."

No, it is not merely the disputed territories Arafat truly seeks, but the Palestinian annihilation and conquest of the entire State of Israel.

Respectfully, 
D.G. 
New York, NY

 
Letter 6
To :  The Sunday Times
Date :  30.3.2002
 

Your Palestinian suicide bombers (24 March) and their masters have misrepresented their objectives. Arafat's web-site (www.fateh.net/e_public/constitution.htm) makes it clear that their goal is "Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence". Article 19 states that "Armed struggle ... will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated." This has been Arab policy since the
birth of Israel (Egypt and Jordan have since contracted out) and Arafat's stated policy since he took over the PLO. Hamas policy is even more bloodthirsty. Israel is entitled to take any steps it thinks fit to avoid extermination.

Yours sincerely,

B.R.

 
Letter 7
A LOUD BRAVO         (Jerusalem Post, Friday, Jan 3, 2003)
 
Sir, - A load bravo to the Post and to Bret Stephens for his Eye on the Media columns and for "Liar, Liar" (December 27) on the absolutely crucial subject of professional Palestinian propaganda lies. These lies, and liars like Saeb Erekat, damage the chances of an understanding ever coming about.
Judging by the damage done to Israel, these propaganda lies should worry us no less than military threats and terror. That is why we, concerned Israeli volunteers, with pen-friends in the world, mostly European Christians and Jews, initiated Take-A-Pen, helping to react in private readers' letters to any bias against Israel. In two years we have grown to an active Web site in nine languages, but when we read and watch the world media we still frequently feel like whipping boys.

When journalists of the huge knowledge and analytical skill of Bret Stephens take their part in the fight against the Palestinian Lie Empire, things will improve.

ENDRE Y. MOZES
Chairman, Take-a-Pen

 
 
 

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