Former Congressman Barney Frank recently lent his good name to defending Israel, even as he opposed Israel’s disastrous settlement policy.

Unfortunately, Frank’s defense relies on myths that have long obscured the real history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, thereby preventing a just peace.

Every point Congressman Frank makes about the history of the conflict – about Arab armies aiming to “wipe out the Jewish state,” Israel’s “willingness to release territories” if Arabs behave peacefully, and the great deals offered Arafat by Clinton/Barak and Olmert – has been convincingly refuted by various Israeli historians and reliable analysts with extensive experience in the Middle East (Illan Pappe, Benny Morris, Tom Segev, Henry Siegman, Avi Shlaim).

Frank says Israel is justified in blockading Gaza because of its “right to defend itself.” But doesn’t Hamas have a right to respond to Israel’s blockade, itself an eight-year act of war whose true purpose was revealed by Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharon’s top aid: “We have to make (Gazans) much thinner, but not enough to die.” This “diet,” writes Sandy Tolan, has been disastrous for children, with “a sharp rise in poverty and chronic child malnutrition, anemia, typhoid fever, and potentially fatal infant diarrhea.” (68 percent of 9- to 12-month-old infants and 37 percent of pregnant women are anemic).

One might well ask: What government would stand for a siege designed to starve its children?

Amnesty International and the Goldstone Report both refuted claims that Hamas deliberately puts its own citizens at risk, though both found strong evidence that Israel itself used civilians as shields.

While Congressman Frank wisely condemns Israel’s settlement policy, he needs to recognize the reality of Israel’s intention to dispossess the Palestinians of their land, which has always been the root cause of this conflict. Confronting this truth, rather than embracing stale myths, is the only basis for a lasting peace.

Robert Schaible

Portland

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