Local News
Letter To The Editor: Church Silent On Israel’s Gaza Attacks
Published: January 22, 2009
To the Editor:
Realizing that most, if not all, of the letters to the editor are in praise of the Catholic Church, this is one lifelong Catholic who is absolutely disappointed in the church’s response to Israel’s slaughter of more than 1,100 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, in this latest war in Gaza.
During the past several years, the Israelis have forced 1.5 million people in Gaza to go without food, medical care, heating fuel, electricity, clean water and facilities and infrastructure necessary to life or even a halfway decent standard of living. The Israelis have controlled the air, water and land preventing Palestinians from leaving or entering, even forbidding Palestinian students who won Fulbright scholarships from attending universities in the United States. Israel tries to fool the public into thinking that they have left Gaza when in fact they have made Gaza into one of the largest prisons in the world.
The photo of the Israeli soldiers mourning the death of one of their own, Alex Mashavisky, is sad (The Georgia Bulletin, Jan.15). He is one of eight Israeli soldiers killed in this conflict, four of them killed by Israeli friendly fire including the death of Alex Mashavisky. Why have there been no photos of the more than 300 Palestinian children’s funerals? Is the death of Palestinian children not as important as that of Israeli soldiers especially when you consider the disproportionate numbers?
But the most important question that I have and the reason for my anger is the silence coming from the Vatican. Can you imagine the condemnation if the numbers were in reverse? Why hasn’t Pope Benedict condemned Israel for this attack? After all, it was the Israelis who first violated the ceasefire on Nov. 4 when the Israelis invaded Gaza and killed six Palestinians. This provocation led to Hamas firing rockets into Israel, which never killed anyone.
As I write this letter, Israel refuses to agree on a ceasefire and has instead shelled a UN hospital, a UN school, and just yesterday a UN headquarters building destroying thousands of pounds of food and humanitarian supplies intended for Palestinian refugees. And if this wasn’t cruel in itself, the bombs being used by the Israelis are filled with phosphorous to insure burning of the victims. And still not a word of condemnation from the Catholic Church. Is killing innocent men, women, and especially children wrong “unless Israel does it?”
Retired Brig. Gen. James J. David, Marietta
