Dear NileMedia Reader: As we have always hoped, many Israelis are starting to understand where Sharon is leading them. We get quite a bit of mail and we try to respond to it. One of the great suprises is that our mail is so positive in tone. But some of it is less flattering. But if it is well written, we might publish it. So this is the letter from Avi.

Dear Mr. Amr,

I am an Israeli-Canadian student who is disdained at what his government and its military are wreaking upon the Palestinians in the occupied territories. Anyone with intimate knowledge of this conflict knows that the violence now engrossing the region, if allowed to continue unabated, will all but erase any hopes for a lasting ceasefire and a resumption of political negotiations. Under no circumstances do I condone the continued oppression and humiliation of the Palestinians. Neither do I sympathize for the suicide bombings against Israeli civilians as a legitimate form of resistance against the occupation of Palestinian territories.

Since this conflict first garnered worldwide attention a half century ago, it is true that the majority of the English-speaking press has had a pro-Israeli slant to it. It is also true that all the Arabic-speaking press in the Middle-East has had an unabashedly anti-Israeli slant to it. Through reading your website I’ve gathered that beneath your unilateral exposés of the purported “Yiddish Supremacist propaganda machine”, you are interested in both sides of this conflict achieving a lasting peace. To what end you are achieving this solely by disseminating material that only lends itself to increasing the divide between [Pro-]Palestinians and Israelis is questionable.

With all due respect Mr. Amr, if your goal is to inform the English-speaking world AND to see an end to this conflict, I think you should devote more editorials to the latter point by proposing meaningful solutions. For every article on your website that exclusively draws attention to either the subversiveness of the Israelis, Jews, the U.S. news media or its politicians, you only further ingrain the “us versus them” mentality into those readers who are equally capable of advocating meaningful solutions.

I can understand your resentment towards those whom you see as being responsible for the violence, concealing the truth and distorting the facts. But lashing out at them while at the same time only citing all the historical injustices only perpetuates this never-ending debacle without resolving the issue.

You and I both know that this isn’t just a land issue. The internet has the capability of making more people aware of what needs to be done rather than citing who is to blame for the current escalation in violence (we have the press on both sides for that). As someone with the potential to make a difference by influencing other people’s opinions, I hope you will find the time to at least draw some attention to the fact that one way or another, Israelis and Palestinians will have to learn to live together. How you go about this is entirely up to you.

Sincerely,

Avi K.