John: The President and Dugard are actually trying too hard, and they are factually wrong. As Dugard notes, Obama said in his Cairo speech: "Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and it does not succeed. For centuries black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights." As he suggested, it was nonviolence that carried the day and advanced rights and justice in South Africa and other struggles." However, the President seems to have forgotten the bloody Civil War that was fought by whites to win the freedom of blacks. And he seems to have forgotten that the African National Congress was a terrorist group on the US list for several years before they won the engagement in South Africa and became the ruling political party. It is a sad commentary, but I fear that Hamas is right in refusing to forego violence against the Israelis who use violence against the Palestinians all the time. It is hard to forget Gaza in all of this; no one stepped in to even slow the Israeli slaughter. If the Palestinians do not fight back, there is presently no one to defend them.
Terry | |