Letter to President Obama and his answer
Friday, August 22, 2014
President Barak Obama
The White House
Washington, DC
Dear President Obama,
I am an 82 year old citizen of the United States (where I reside) and Germany (where I was born). I am well aware of and burdened by the fact that my people killed millions of Jews and other people, and my mission is now to prevent the survivors of that genocide from committing a genocide on another people, the Palestinians.
Yesterday I heard you once again iterate as you have often before that Israel has the right to defend itself. I would not question that.
However, do not the Palestinians also have that right? How many Palestinians must Israel kill—3,000, 4,000, 5,000, six million - before we hear you say that Palestinians have the right to defend themselves? Why is their right less in your eyes than Israel’s right?
Don’t misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that their freedom fighters continue to send rockets against the Israeli population. I oppose violence. But to hear you state that Israel has the right to defend itself, without a word about the Palestinian right, is appalling.
Is it because you—the United States—supply Israel with the tools for killing Palestinians? Is it because you are indebted by the industrial-military complex and the Israeli Lobby, so that you not only furnish the killing tools, but also allow Israel to test them upon a captive people, the Palestinians in Gaza?
I am ashamed and disappointed in you! We had so much hope in you when you ran for office. In fact, after remaining a German citizen living in the USA with a green card for many years under a leadership I could not respect, I applied for citizenship in 2007 because I wanted you to have my vote, because I trusted you to do the right thing. You could have made history. Instead, you were silent in the face of the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and have let yourself be bought by those whose interest is wars, because the industrial-military complex makes money off of them.
It saddens me that you will go down in history as a non-entity instead of the great man that you could have been. It saddens me that you lack the humanity to say that Israel must stop testing its (and US’) weapons on a people that have no place even to escape to, that Israel must stop trying to protect its people by unleashing a holocaust on the Palestinian people. Had Israel really wanted security for Israelis it would have found solutions and made peace, peace with justice, not war, and that long ago. It has had partners. It is the Palestinians that have no Israeli partner!
Sincerely,
Inge Etzbach
www.palestine2014.weebly.com
President Barak Obama
The White House
Washington, DC
Dear President Obama,
I am an 82 year old citizen of the United States (where I reside) and Germany (where I was born). I am well aware of and burdened by the fact that my people killed millions of Jews and other people, and my mission is now to prevent the survivors of that genocide from committing a genocide on another people, the Palestinians.
Yesterday I heard you once again iterate as you have often before that Israel has the right to defend itself. I would not question that.
However, do not the Palestinians also have that right? How many Palestinians must Israel kill—3,000, 4,000, 5,000, six million - before we hear you say that Palestinians have the right to defend themselves? Why is their right less in your eyes than Israel’s right?
Don’t misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that their freedom fighters continue to send rockets against the Israeli population. I oppose violence. But to hear you state that Israel has the right to defend itself, without a word about the Palestinian right, is appalling.
Is it because you—the United States—supply Israel with the tools for killing Palestinians? Is it because you are indebted by the industrial-military complex and the Israeli Lobby, so that you not only furnish the killing tools, but also allow Israel to test them upon a captive people, the Palestinians in Gaza?
I am ashamed and disappointed in you! We had so much hope in you when you ran for office. In fact, after remaining a German citizen living in the USA with a green card for many years under a leadership I could not respect, I applied for citizenship in 2007 because I wanted you to have my vote, because I trusted you to do the right thing. You could have made history. Instead, you were silent in the face of the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and have let yourself be bought by those whose interest is wars, because the industrial-military complex makes money off of them.
It saddens me that you will go down in history as a non-entity instead of the great man that you could have been. It saddens me that you lack the humanity to say that Israel must stop testing its (and US’) weapons on a people that have no place even to escape to, that Israel must stop trying to protect its people by unleashing a holocaust on the Palestinian people. Had Israel really wanted security for Israelis it would have found solutions and made peace, peace with justice, not war, and that long ago. It has had partners. It is the Palestinians that have no Israeli partner!
Sincerely,
Inge Etzbach
www.palestine2014.weebly.com