Why?

Thanks Andrew for this one ....

(Jewish Chronicle-UK, 18May05) UK Chief Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks writes...

"Why...

• Why, after 57 years and more of seeking peace, is Israel still seen as the aggressor?
• Why, after 10 years of negotiation, in which the Palestinians were offered their own state in all of Gaza, 97% of the West Bank, with a capital in east Jerusalem, is Israel still seen as the sole obstacle to peace?
• Why, in a world in which there are 57 Islamic states and something like 100 Christian ones, is the desire of the Jewish people to have just one state of its own seen as racist, exclusionary, retrograde?
• Why, when Israel occupies a quarter of 1% of the land mass of the Arab world, is it seen to be Goliath against David?
• Why, alone among the almost 200 nations that comprise the UN, is Israel the only one whose very right to be is still called into question?
• Why do we still - after 60 years of Holocaust education, anti-racist legislation, and interfaith activity - have to defend the right of the Jewish people to be?

If there were justice in the world, Israel, a tiny country of indomitable courage, would be seen as a role model among the nations, not as a pariah among the nations. "

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