LETTER: Don’t teach hate

Editor,

Mr. Khalil’s letter to the editor (1/13/03) in response to my opinion column “Hanukkah Reflections” is too full of errors and mistaken assumptions to respond to point-by-point in a letter to the editor.

I will note, however, that he fails to criticize or even address the main issue of my piece — the massive, hateful, racist, anti-Semitic propaganda campaign carried on throughout the Arab and Muslim world against Israelis and Jews. Could it be because there’s nothing he can say and would rather you forget what I brought to your attention?

I, too, would like to see a Middle East in which Arabs and Jews “treat each other with equal rights, equal opportunities, and equal freedoms.” But the hate and lies broadcast in the Arab media every day is making this peaceful vision impossible in everyone’s hearts and minds, even if it were ever to become possible on the ground. You can’t hope to make peace if you teach hate.

Steve Siporin