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Salaam,

I called Barbara Morgan, Executive Editor of the Eastside Journal and asked her a few questions. She profusely apologized that this article had been printed and said Adele Ferguson, the author, was fired immediately and her column was removed from their paper. I asked her how it was that her paper managed to PRINT the article in the first place since they have an editor, executive editor and many others who review everything before printing. She said Adele Ferguson is a long-time journalist (30 yrs experience) whose articles appear with regularity. Thus, her material was not screened or reviewed prior to publication this time. The editor also mentioned the Arab Anti-discrimination Committee chairperson spoke with her and they are jointly planning to publish an answer to Ms. Ferguson's article. Though the editor was herself quite disgusted with Ms. Ferguson, I think we should take more serious steps to make sure this can never happen again. A slap on the wrist is not enough for the paper or for Ms. Ferguson. I am wondering if we should consult with a Washington state attorney on this matter, wondering if this is a violation of the privileges granted under the 1st Amendment because it potentially incites imminent lawless action - namely the killing of children. The arguement may not fly because Ms. Ferguson could make an argument that such lawless action would not be imminent but I still think Ms. Ferguson should receive a very STRONG letter from attorney here. A nybody have any views on this?

Humaira

"Don't write that," advised my husband when I told him my solution to bringing an end to the suicide bomber terrorism inflicted on Israel by the Palestinian Arabs.

I'm not recommending it, I said, I know it would never come to pass because it would horrify the civilized world.  I'm just saying it's a fallacy that you can't defeat an enemy who is willing and almost eager to die for what he or she regards as a noble cause when death brings martyrdom.

Jews will die for a noble cause if fate dictates, but you don't hear of any Jews blowing themselves up just to take a few Palestinians with them.  And, by the way, Jews are Palestinians too.  For those Arabs to call themselves Palestinians as if they were the only ones is the same as Indians in this country regarding themselves as the only true Native Americans.  I am a Native American, born in Fort Snelling, Minn.

Until creation of the state of Israel in 1948 by the United Nations, there were the Arabs and the Jews, all of them Palestinians.  On that day of creation, Arab armies, headed by Transjordan, invaded Israel and were defeated but not totally driven out.  They kept possession of Eastern Jerusalem and the territories of Judea and Samaria, renamed the West Bank, where they expelled all the Jews and destroyed their houses of worship.  For the next 19 years, Jews could not visit the wailing wall in Jerusalem.  They took it and the West Bank back in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Peace proposals have included joint occupation of Jerusalem and turning over to the Palestinian Arabs parts of the West Bank, but the Jews are afraid that once the Arabs were in place, they'd start the violence all over again.  Arab policy, according to a Jewish anti-Arab propaganda outfit called FLAME (Facts and Logic about the Middle East), "is to get as much land as possible carved out of Israel 'by peaceful and diplomatic' means, so as to make Israel indefensible and softened up for the final assault."

When my husband and I were in Israel in 1983 as part of a Washington State trade mission, we met with both Arab and Jewish officials, separately, of course.  Arabs never used any word other than "occupied" for the Jewish presence in the land.  The Jews said they took back in 1967 what the U.N. gave them in 1948, so the Arabs were the illegal occupiers, not them.

Jews do not want American bases or troops in their country, one top official told us.  "We can take care of ourselves so long as we have the means to do it, tanks, planes, which we receive from you.  We haven't had a quiet day in 35 years.  All we hope for, sometime, is to have one quiet day."

So what is my solution for ending this carnage?  It stems from the words of the late, great Prime Minister Golda Meir: "This won't be settled until they love their children more than they hate Jews."  The next time a bunch of Arab youths are throwing rocks at the Israeli tanks, mow them down.  Kill them.  Keep doing it until the Arabs decide whether they really hate the Jews more than they love their children.

Too cruel and inhuman?

Yes.  But who were the Arabs targeting when they blew up that disco frequented by young people?  Many children died in the Passover massacre, which targeted families.  Arabs have gone after innocents because they want to so terrorize the Jews they will be afraid to dine out or shop or take a bus, and will agree, even urge relinquishing most, if not all (Arafat wants all) of the land they took back in the 1967 war.

I don't think the Israelis would have to dispose of many Arab children before the white flag would go up.  The world would hate them for it, a world that has been surprisingly tolerant of the Arabs slaughter of Jewish children, but I'd bet the suicide bombings would stop.