Letters

Boycott Israel movement hides true goals, misrepresents Israel

The boycott Israel movement is anti-Israel. It objects not to any particular Israeli action but to Israel’s very existence and its goal is to eliminate Israel. As boycott activist Ahmed Moor said, the boycott movement “does mean the end of the Jewish state.”

To end the Jewish state, boycott activists ally with Hamas and other terror groups that seek not only the destruction of Israel and expulsion of its Jewish citizens, but the eventual murder of all Jews everywhere in the world.

Besides hiding its genocidal ambitions, the boycott movement consistently misrepresents Israel. As it does in all countries, discrimination exists in Israel – Jews discriminate against Arabs and Arabs discriminate against Jews – but Israel’s Arab citizens participate fully in society.

Arab Israelis vote and serve in parliament. They serve as officers in the military, and Israel has had an Arab army general. An Arab Israeli has served as an Israeli Supreme Court justice and an Arab Israeli judge headed the three-judge panel that recently convicted a former Israel president of a major felony.

That the boycott Israel movement hides its true goals and lies about Israel should tell you all you need to know about the movement and its members.

Mike Barenti

Spokane

Legitimacy of Israel state, its policies are called into question

On your pages, Rabbi Goldstein recently accused Marianne Torres and me of “delegitimizing the existence of the state of Israel” with our freeway sign reading “End 50 years of Occupation. Boycott Israel.” (The Voice, Feb. 10)

A state founded on and steeped in the practice of racism, apartheid, repression and ethnic cleansing is organically illegitimate, precisely as was the Third Reich and South Africa. In the case of South Africa, a legitimate state remains after a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions brought changes to the practices of the illegitimate state. 

Nations do not have an intrinsic right to exist. People do, and that includes all the people of Israel and Palestine.

Michael Poulin

Spokane