Mr. Carmen Cerra has really succeeded in portraying the situation in the Middle East in his last drawing. I would like to express my opinion about the letter sent by Josh Katelman in response to Mr. Cerra’s cartoon.

I would like to quote from Mr. Katelman’s words: “Every child at the age of 18 joins the Israeli defense force.” Well, I guess this would tell exactly that Israel is a military base rather than a country. And for Mr. Katelman’s information, Israel’s neighbor with the longest border, Jordan, has stopped military service.

The second thing I would like to quote is “providing a safe haven after the Holocaust.” I guess Mr. Katelman forgot a very important fact in this regard. Arabs didn’t do the Holocaust; Hitler did.

Mr. Katelman, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, so Mr. Cerra didn’t need “insider information” for his conclusions. Arabs don’t hate Jews, Americans, Italians or anyone, but for how long can they live with Israeli occupation in Palestine, South Lebanon and the Golan Heights? And how is it easy for the Arabs to forget the Palestinian children, “who are less than 18,” who used to die each day by the Israeli soldiers or the innocents of South Lebanon or … Facts are clear, but you are asking people to not think. Finally, I would like to ask Mr. Katelman: do you still remember who killed Rabin, “the peace-maker with the Arabs,” and why?

Sameh Al-Shihabi

Graduate student

Industrial and manufacturing systems engineering

Treasurer of the ASA