Letter: Israel not without fault in this crisis

Saturday, July 22, 2006 | 7:48 a.m.

The Las Vegas Sun's July 18 editorial, "A democracy defends itself," justifying Israel's mad, berserk reaction to border incidents is mystifying.

Israel keeps millions of Arabs under occupation. Just because it abandoned Gaza does not mean it still doesn't control it.

Israel still controls the borders, air space and shoreline in the most arbitrary and mean-spirited way to inflict maximum misery. Israel drops bombs, artillery and missiles whenever and on whomever it deems a threat or a provocation. Israel doesn't recognize the democratically elected representative of the Palestinians.

Does the killing and kidnapping of a dozen Israeli solders by an extra-government force justify billions of dollars in Lebanese civilian infrastructure damage? And just where and on whom do those thousands of Israeli bombs, shells and rockets land?

As long as Israel acts as our cat's-paw and the U.S. arms and abets, it will only have itself to blame when others obtain the means and tactics to give it a taste of its own medicine.

Dale Quale, Las Vegas