Palestine Facts Don’t Add Up

Letters to the editor

Palestine Facts Don’t Add Up

Rev. Clint Mooney, Calgary

Volume 26  Issue 7, 8 & 9 | Posted: September 17, 2012

   I am emailing because I was rather upset by Dale Perkins’ article (page 3, June July 2012 Island Catholic News). I don’t have first hand information about the present state of things on the ground in Palestine having not been there recently – what I have heard suggests a more nuanced understanding than Dale has or gives.
   But the history of how Israel got to this point is grossly misrepresented by Dale’s article. It is just plain inaccurate. (Just so you know, he doesn’t mention that there were Jews in the land in numbers before partition, nor does he mention the war declared against Israel in 1948, nor the fact that there were around 350,000 Jews who came after the war from Europe while 800,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab states across Africa and the Middle East without compensation for losses came to Israel as well having no where else to go, nor … – I could go on.)

   I am emailing because I was rather upset by Dale Perkins’ article (page 3, June July 2012 Island Catholic News). I don’t have first hand information about the present state of things on the ground in Palestine having not been there recently – what I have heard suggests a more nuanced understanding than Dale has or gives.
   But the history of how Israel got to this point is grossly misrepresented by Dale’s article. It is just plain inaccurate. (Just so you know, he doesn’t mention that there were Jews in the land in numbers before partition, nor does he mention the war declared against Israel in 1948, nor the fact that there were around 350,000 Jews who came after the war from Europe while 800,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab states across Africa and the Middle East without compensation for losses came to Israel as well having no where else to go, nor … – I could go on.)
   You might want to ask the local Rabbi to comment on Dale’s piece – if he can do so without an anger comparable to Dale’s.

   

Rev. Clint Mooney, Calgary