Ms. Marquardt-Bigman,
This is a genuinely offensive article.
First, it smacks very much of "white man's burden" talk to say the Arab World needs Israel as some kind of link to the West. That is called prejudice.
And how your foolish notion betrays ignorance of history.
The Arabs in Spain eight centuries ago hardly needed Israel to form connections.
And the fact that we teach algebra (an Arab word) in schools and use the zero in our mathematics and praise Arabic horses are just a few proofs of ancient connections between the Arab world and the West.
"The aspiration to contribute to a Middle East in which equitable development would benefit a just society was originally an integral part of the Zionist vision..."
This is just factually wrong.
Yes, some Zionists had such a view, but they were not the ones whose views became Israel's policy. These were people like Einstein whose name was exploited to raise funds but whose views were virtually ignored.
As you must surely know, Jobotinsky's concept of the "Iron Wall" has characterized Israel's policy from the beginning.
How does one learn anything from an iron wall?
And if you do not know this history, why are you writing such articles?
If this is the best defenders of Israel's bloody excesses can do, I'd say the propaganda shell-game played by them is just about over.
