Dear Ms. Marzec:
Your ALS Ice Bucket Challenge video appalled many Ohio University students, alumni and faculty, including myself. Your behavior, along with those supporting you at the September 10 Student Senate meeting, has embarrassed Ohio University for your personal goals.
Editor’s Note: A portion of this letter is in Hebrew. It is a common pro-Israel phrase that can be translated to “the people of Israel live.”
To the Editor,
Dear Ms. Marzec:
Your ALS Ice Bucket Challenge video appalled many Ohio University students, alumni and faculty, including myself. Your behavior, along with those supporting you at the September 10 Student Senate meeting, has embarrassed Ohio University for your personal goals. As a student not affiliated with Bobcats for Israel, Alpha Epsilon Pi or any other Ohio University organization supporting Israel, I would like to share my thoughts, while trying to be concise as possible.
First of all, you manipulated a great cause for your own good. You also did this as a purported representative of Ohio University. I, unlike you, know that Israel does not promote genocide and bloodshed. Israel has been involved in an all-out war against a terrorist organization. Hamas was elected democratically by the people of Gaza. Article 7 of the Hamas Charter reads, “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.”
When a group threatens to destroy the Jewish people, maybe they mean it. As for Hamas, Operation Pillar of Defense has proved that with indiscriminate rocket attacks, which do not even stop during cease-fire, and elaborate tunnel systems devised to kidnap Israelis. The resources for the tunnels could have been used to further develop Gaza. However, its goal is clear-cut: to eliminate the Jewish nation. Many of the deaths in Gaza are caused by Hamas. It forces people to stay in their homes, to be human shields and to construct elaborate tunnels (the construction of the tunnels have killed over 100 children).
The pictures of dead children are beneficial for Hamas, creating international resentment toward Israel. However, Israel warns civilians and cancels air-strikes among other measures to prevent civilian deaths. Civilians being killed are an aspect of war. War is hell. Just ask Israel. This small, young Jewish state has fought several conflicts for its survival. This nation has sacrificed so much blood and is willing to sacrifice more if need be. Israel has made it clear it will, despite misplaced world opinion, protect its citizenry. If Hamas wants an all-out war, and not peace, it will certainly get that. The old saying, “be careful what you wish for,” applies to this predicament. Hundreds of children could have been spared if Hamas did not kidnap three Israeli teenagers and did not build elaborate tunnels and fire mortars and rockets repeatedly at Israel. War goes both ways in case you didn’t realize. In my case, I have had a few members of my own distant family killed in the Arab-Israeli conflict, one by Palestinian terrorists.
These Palestinian children could have been spared if the Palestinians had accepted partition in 1948. Their own Arab brothers and sisters created the refugee crisis by launching a war of extermination in 1948. The Camp David Accords in 2000 was the most fair deal given to the Palestinians. Instead, they launched a brutal war of suicide bombings against their neighbors, and wonder why they are being blocked by a massive wall. Maybe the Palestinians should look in the mirror when they are unsatisfied with their predicament. Maybe they don’t want peace.
Your behavior regarding the pro-Israel groups on campus is reminiscent of my spoiled toddler days. You yell, scream and whine at anyone that peacefully disagrees with you. The chants of “fascists,” aimed at these students are appalling. Let’s think about this intuitively, Ms. Marzec. You, as a student leader, demanded that these students be arrested. They did end up in jail. So who really is the “fascist” in this case? The leader who suppresses and jails a peaceful opposition sounds a lot like fascism to me rather than the jailed students. Is it safe to be Jewish and/or pro-Israel on campus now?
I do not know if you’re anti-Semitic or willfully ignorant or both. However, it is a shame that you are in a position of power after alienating so many members of the Athens community. However, if you’re anti-Semitic, ית ךניבא דךע ית לארשי םע. The only thing worse than a preventable hundreds of children dying is millions of children dying systematically.
Allen Michaels
