Letter to the editor Contra Costa Times published June 2002:

Israel is indeed a “staunch ally” of the US (Readers’ Forum, May 7). It

seems logical that billions of dollars per year in aid buys at least

some level of loyalty.

It’s what else that money buys that is so disturbing. It pays for

Apache gunships, tanks, and F-16 fighter jets that wreak destruction and

death on a basically unarmed civilian population.

It pays for settlement activities that inject a foreign, imperialistic

presence in an area that is traditionally Arab in character.

It pays for a racist, apartheid-like system that provides more rights

and privileges to its Jewish inhabitants than to non-Jews. Observers

from South Africa have commented that the system in Gaza and the West

Bank is remarkably similar to the tactics imposed upon the black

population of their own country before autonomy was at last achieved.

Yes, it’s true, Israel is a staunch US ally. But, unfortunately, it is

also a huge threat to world peace, for all of the reasons listed above,

and many, many more.

Injecting a European or American presence into an area against the will

of the native population is imperialistic and colonialistic. In modern

times, few such anachronistic outposts have proven successful. In South

Africa, the native population seized back the land from the white

settlers. The oil-industry colony, Aramco, failed in Saudi Arabia.

Israel must heed the lessons of history. Self-determination and

nationalism are indeed powerful forces for change.