The Foreign Service Journal, January 2003

implement self-rule, despite promis- es at Wye River, Sharm-el Sheikh, Camp David, and Taba, the Palestinians and most of the Arab world continue to seek the destruc- tion of Jews and the state of Israel. The Arab media spews out raw anti-Semitic hatred almost every day. Often they are simply quoting leading clerics and government offi- cials. (Examples can be found at www.memri.org, the Middle Eastern Media Research Institute Web site.) Ideas matter, and violent ideas spawn violent actions. Arab anti- Semitism is the source of the current Middle East conflict. Richard G. Miles FSO Washington, D.C. Honesty about Settlements Why does the pro-Israeli lobby, including pressure groups like honestreporting.com , always label objective reporting as anti-Semitic or “rehashed propaganda”? Look at a map showing Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Where are the Palestinians supposed to live? Every American president has severely criticized this latest Israeli expansion, but Israel is very adept at appealing to Congress or the Christian right when the White House becomes a little too pushy. Do not doubt for a second that there is a direct line from those settle- ments to Sept. 11. Without question, Jews are the greatest people who have ever lived and for 3,000 years their contribu- tion to the world of knowledge has been unequaled. Also, we know that after each of the wars since 1948, Israel has offered to return Arab land for peace, a concept scoffed at by the Palestinians. However, right now, no one in the world except hard-line Israelis and knee-jerk Christian conservatives supports the settlements. The latter do so in the belief that the settlements will has- ten the return of Jesus. We must guarantee the existence of Israel but not its territorial ambi- tions. Continued Arab support, with the obvious exceptions of Syria, Libya and Iraq, speaks vol- umes for the long-standing respect and admiration the Arab world holds for the U.S. Honestreporting.com and its cohorts are now keeping score of universities and individuals who are not blindly pro-Israel, and they can put my name on the list. The message from us and 99 per- cent of the world is simple; get out of Gaza and the West Bank. If we are going to continue to be accept- ed as the policeman of the world, we have to be a little more honest, objective and democratic. This issue should receive our concentra- tion, not Iraq. Kurt Shafer FSO, retired Chatsworth, Ill. Glorifying a Terrorist? While I am always interested to learn about a sister agency with whom we often share overseas facilities, I was nevertheless sur- prised by the recent cover story about the Agency for International Development (“Andrew Natsios: Getting USAID on Its Feet,” FSJ , September). I am willing to stipu- late that USAID has accomplished many great things over the years, but the report was less than balanced. The article indicates, in a quote by Andrew S. Natsios, “Congress wants information [on USAID pro- grams] ... and we can’t do it.” I find this disturbing, especially in light of a piece in the “Brickbats” section of the November issue of Reason mag- azine, which reports that USAID has recently intervened to refurbish a fail- ing Palestinian high school. J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 9 L E T T E R S