Not Surprised
Lara Friedman is taken aback that her desire for peace found no match at the Arab League’s Conference on Jerusalem, manifest by rejection of any Jewish claim to that city (“Jerusalem Isn’t Just for Arabs, Either,” March 9).
Israel’s conflict with the Arabs has never been about Jerusalem. Since the United Nations approved partition in 1947, an Arab Palestinian state has been repeatedly presented but rejected — since it required accepting a Jewish Israel, albeit with Arab civil and religious rights not available to Jews or Christians — or even Arabs — elsewhere in the region. Too weak to win on the battlefield, the Oslo process was war by diplomatic means, a staged path toward Israel’s destruction, which is why the fabricated “right of return” was always the Arab “red line.” The real amazement is not what Friedman heard Arabs say to each other, words they usually avoid before delusional westerners, who desperately want to believe peace will come. It is that after 65 years of Arabs rejecting any peace that leaves Israel intact, she was surprised.
John R. Cohn
Philadelphia, Pa.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.