To the Editor:
I am disappointed in the one-sided coverge in the Catholic News Service article “Christians must oppose Israeli settlements.”
The bishops visiting the Gaza Strip cited the inability of Palestinians in getting building supplies to rebuild after the Israeli shelling. They forget that building supplies and resources were given to the Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas used them to build tunnels to attack Israelis, rather than to build homes. That, along with rocket attacks from Gaza, was the proximate cause of Israeli shelling.
Neither side is blameless in the dispute. Settlements on the West Bank are an obstacle to peace. But that is not the whole story. Would the U.S. negotiate peace with a people who do not acknowledge our right to exist and resort to terrorism?
Back in the 1970s, a journalist asked Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meier when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would end. She answered “When we love our children more than we hate each other.” Is that not still the case?
Mike Streb
Iowa City
