Richard Cohen [“Yes, culture matters,” op-ed, Aug. 6] rightfully celebrated the many artistic, scientific and business achievements of Jews in Europe and modern Israel in his attempt to defend the recent comments of presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Unfortunately, Mr. Cohen minimized the corrosive effects of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian economic life. This summer I took part in an interfaith delegation to Israel and the occupied territories and was greatly disturbed to see the pervasive system of ethnic segregation practiced in the land under Israel’s control since 1967.
The separation wall, the system of color-coded license plates, the identity papers and the thick maze of regulations serve to restrict and deny Palestinian Arab movement, economic opportunity and civil rights.
Mr. Cohen’s (and Mr. Romney’s) explanation that the Palestinian Arabs’ economic plight is due to cultural differences makes as much sense as blaming African American culture for black poverty in the Jim Crow South.
William F. Simonds, Potomac
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Former New York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was mistaken. The Post apparently allows critics of Israel their own facts.
In his Aug. 10 op-ed piece, “The Palestine Romney doesn’t know,” Zahi Khouri accused Israel of doing the impossible, stealing another people’s history, accomplishments and culture while not being responsible for the documented reality of creating a society that’s caused teeth-gnashing envy among the surrounding countries. Not only has Israel made the desert bloom, it has made freedom bloom in a part of the world where freedom had never before existed.
I am scratching my head wondering how Palestinians, forced to live segregated in refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon, kicked out of other Persian Gulf nations, have “been a force for hope, development and prosperity” in those countries.
Had there truly been a centuries-old Palestinian history and culture, Palestinians surely would have achieved their potential, with real accomplishments, before the creation of Israel, leaving no need for Mr. Khouri to create his own facts in order to blame Israel for the sorry state of the Palestinians.
Harry Onickel, Ferndale, Mich.
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