To the editor:
It would be unconscionable to the point of sacrilege if the tragic death of the now beloved young couple outside the museum in Washington were exploited to advance the cause of war and hatred, the very things they opposed with their lives. Miss Milgrim worked with Tech 2 Peace, an organization that brought Israeli and Palestinian young people together for business and technological training in a specific context of conflict resolution and the rejection of violence. It follows that she and her handsome intended would have disapproved of the relentless and indiscriminate killing and deliberate starvation of thousands of Palestinian non-combatants.
We are now long past the point where criticism of the destructive and inhumane Israeli action in the region, by the humanitarian community, religious precept, the U.N., the World Court, and world leaders like Prime Minister Starmer can, in any remotely credible way, continue to be dismissed as anti-Semitism. There is, of course,anti-semitism, invidious and growing, but this is not it!
There was, for example, the overt anti -semitism of the Tree of Life massacre, pepetrated by an ardent follower of the man who now purports to be the valiant foe of anti-semitism, and under his unwarranted arrogation of its aegis, proceeds to suppress expression and dissent in the universities, while his own accommodation of Nazi leaders, his obvious penchant for their language, and indeed for their founder, has yet to be explained!
There is atrocity, cruelty, and wanton disregard for the sanctity of human life on both sides of this terrible war. The best memorial to these dear, loving young people is to recognize and insist that they were — and are — above it! The most fitting tribute to their love for each other, a love inseparable from the peace that they endorsed, is to pursue international peace in love for one another.
Instead, we have the administration’s secretary of bounty hunting, Ms. Noem, in Israel to attend, with Mr. Netanyahu, a memorial for the couple, which will most certainly be co-opted so as to justify further aggression against the very innocents for whom the young couple showed sympathy!
Joseph R. Noone
Lynn
