Daniel J. Pipes

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To John R and Moshe

Reader comment on item: Hold Damascus Responsible
in response to reader comment: A few basic points and a suggestion

Submitted by Tom Tonon (United States), Aug 9, 2006 at 21:36

Submitted by John R, Aug 8, 2006 at 23:18:

"As for your fact no#1. There were approximately 615, 000 Arabs and there were approximately 85,000 Jews living then in a place they call Palestine when Israel was formed in 1948."

Submitted by Moshe, Aug 9, 2006 at 15:51:

"And here is the point where you Tom must note and acknowledge that on the territories designated for the Jewish state by this UN resolution, the vast majority of the people living on the land were Jews, who gladly consented. Therefore, as you can see, your Fact (1) which applies to probably most other countries, definitely doesn't apply to Israel. "

John, thanks for your views and for the figures, which are close to what I remember from my own reading. Moshe, thanks for your explanations, though your statement above appears to contradict John's figures, which I tend to believe. Perhaps you're referring to something else, a complication that doesn't reflect the figures given by John. I'd appreciate a little more explanation, and if possible, a reference so that I might follow up on it.

Very few of the responses here were relevant to my suggestion, and to me, it's saddening to hear so much conviction about how evil and violent Islam followers are. I believe it would take an enormous change of heart in most of the posters here to turn from their conviction that more war is the solution to war, and instead turn towards a fair and honest approach that heeds, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," as spoken by a wise Jew a long time ago.

I'd like to respond to one of Infidel's questions to me: "By the way, do you still grieve for Hitler?"

I grieve very much that Hitler was able to convince such a large number of people that war would bring good things, things that they, above all others, deserve, that there are whole populations of "others" so evil they deserve to die and that there's no other solution but to kill. I don't think times have changed very much.

Best regards,
Tom


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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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