OPEN LETTER to PRESIDENT BUSH: About Palestine and Israel

An Open Letter to
President Bush
By Paul Flum

Dear Mr. President:

You are making mistakes — big time — because you are receiving the wrong advice.

You are building a wellspring of hatred toward the United States of America, which is my country as well as yours.

By failing to extend the hand of friendship and equality to the Palestinian people you are leading half the world to look upon us as an arrogant, uncaring, brutal force with a one-sided attitude — rather than the bastion of freedom, independence, and equality, which is what our country has always stood for.

Machiavelli said it long ago:
If you defeat a people you have three options:

Annihilate them and they will no longer exist.

Subjugate them and treat them as inferior beings and they will just be spoiling to bring you down.
or
Make friends of them and they will become your allies.

This is the wisdom that has been available to those who have studied and read history since the 15th century. And it is just as true today.

Unfortunately, the United States as well as Israel chose the second option in dealing with the Palestinians ever since they were moved forcibly from the land they shared with Jews and Christians until 1948 — and left to fester in tent communities around the border of what is now Israel.

Here’s the big question Mr. President:

If our country, in the aftermath of World War II, for the first time in history, could take Machiavelli’s third option and make friends with Germany and Japan, then why can’t we extend the hand of friendship and make common cause with the Palestinian people? Let’s take the lead in creating a free and independent Palestinian State.

NOTE:
The suicide bombers are living (and now dying) testimonials to the abject frustration and desperation of a people who have been marginalized and victimized for generations in favor of another people whom we have championed and armed without requiring them to make friends with and to be helpful to their Palestinian neighbors.

NOW, Mr. President, you have (if you haven’t already missed the chance) a great opportunity to solve the whole situation — by strongly supporting (though belatedly) the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia — who just offered a deal that would do it…

… he convinced all of the Arab countries to acknowledge and accept the existence of Israel as an independent state.
But, this is what we must do to make this happen: Kofi Annan

Support and recognize and honor the creation of a free and independent Palestinian State. Kofi Annan has already announced this as a specific UN goal.
Curb Sharon — with force, if necessary.
Require Israel to give back the occupied territories.
Treat Arafat and the Palestinian people with respect and dignity.
Dedicate the United States to leading and overseeing all negotiations with the Palestinians and Israelis until this job is done.
This will be a measure of your wisdom, dedication, and just plain guts.

I am convinced that you, with the help of your staff, can get this done!

Sincerely,
Paul
Paul Flum
President, Goals for Americans