Arrow-right Camera

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

This column reflects the opinion of the writer. Learn about the differences between a news story and an opinion column.

Middle East tragicomedy

The Spokesman-Review

Remember when godfather Corleone made the head of a Hollywood film studio “an offer he can’t refuse”? So recently the Palestinians received a peace offer from Israel’s prime minister “they could not accept.”

USA Today reacts: “Israel takes a step closer to peace.” The New York Times cites Israel as making a policy reversal with caveats.

Anyone who follows the international media would see most of the world’s reactions to Israel’s offer as very different from our own. Perception has long ago replaced the reality.

Two “inseparable” superpowers in the Middle East, Israel and the United States, are planning to sit down with the scattered Palestinians and exchange offers. It reminds me historically of the some 400 treaties signed by the U.S. with the scattered Native Americans. Every treaty was either broken or manipulated by the powerful.

The powerful in the United States and Israel will never bring about a just peace. Only the peoples of both countries and throughout the Middle East can bring about the impossible.

Horace Walpole once wrote that life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel. The tragicomedy in the Middle East continues.

Ken Bubb

Spokane

Letters Policy

The Spokesman-Review invites original letters on local topics of public interest. Your letter must adhere to the following rules:

  • No more than 250 words
  • We reserve the right to reject letters that are not factually correct, racist or are written with malice.
  • We cannot accept more than one letter a month from the same writer.
  • With each letter, include your daytime phone number and street address.
  • The Spokesman-Review retains the nonexclusive right to archive and re-publish any material submitted for publication.

Unfortunately, we don’t have space to publish all letters received, nor are we able to acknowledge their receipt. (Learn more.)

Submit letters using any of the following:

Our online form
Submit your letter here
Mail
Letters to the Editor
The Spokesman-Review
999 W. Riverside Ave.
Spokane, WA 99201
Fax
(509) 459-5098

Read more about how we crafted our Letters to the Editor policy