To the Editor:

The underlying problem with James Petra’s article “US Military vs. Israel Firsters” (Dec. 1st), is that his world view is just not in tune with reality.  Instead of viewing Israel and their supporter’s actions as war-mongering colonialism designed for regional domination, he needs to see them as survival tactics from a people and a country under direct attack.  

Mr. Petras should not view Israel’s Washington connected supporters as a 5th column attempting to undermine U.S. independent foreign policy interests, but instead as forward-thinking analysts trying to stop a world-wide Islamic fascist movement.  It’s a movement that suppresses women, inhibits personal freedoms and is intolerant of any other religion. These US policy gurus see Israel as an important bulwark in this struggle and have clearly taken its side.  

Consequently, were the Palestinian and Arab world really willing to accept a Jewish state in their midst and not continue to call for Israel’s destruction, were they not continuing to fire rockets at its people or trying to blow them up, were they not continuing to kill each other over attempts within to come to the table (Anwar Sadat) and sign a peace treaty based on an equitable two state solution that’s been available since 1948, then Mr. Petras’s arguments would hold water. However, because Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamic-fascist groups and countries like Iran continue to effectively make war on Israel and Jews and reject anything other than their total annihilation, the entire underpinnings of Mr. Petra’s position are just not viable.

If Mr. Petras saw what was happening in the Mid-East through this different lens, he would be drawing much different conclusions.

Martin Schwartz