Israel's land grabs | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I disagree with David Haughey's "In defense of Israel" (Forum, Dec. 2). That our ancestors stole Native American lands does not justify U.S. tax-dollar support for Israel to carry out similar crimes today. We need to learn from past atrocities, not repeat them.

Haughey recites various incidents in an attempt to prove that Israel's behavior is justified and that Israel only wants peace; therefore, he concludes, Palestinians are the problem.

If we humans could, for a moment, remove ourselves from the arguments and instead sit on a cloud and look down at the Holy Land, we would see that since 1948, Israel has systematically grown larger, while Palestine and other neighbors' territories have grown smaller. Countries that truly want peace with their neighbors may defend themselves from neighbors, but they do not steal land and resources from them.

Evelyn M. Richards

Park City