Public Comment

I'll preface this response to your recent piece with professing ignorance. Since I haven't traveled to Israel, I lack knowledge of any actual events taking place or that have taken place. 

In your piece, you are not denying the Holocaust, something that many anti-Jewish individuals do. You are additionally softening your piece with the assertion that American Jews are becoming unhappy with the behavior taking place in Israel. 

The big problems in your piece are the following: 

The title of the piece: "Israeli Crimes." This lumps together the entire nation as one entity, which it is not. Israel consists of millions of people, it has a government, it has citizens, it has a military, and it has civilians. The term "Israeli Crimes" has a derogatory tone and stokes the flames of hatred toward Jews. What if we substituted? "British Crimes", "African American Crimes", "Chinese Crimes", "American Crimes"? I urge you to rephrase. 

I suggest you phrase your assertion as "Crimes being perpetrated by the Israeli Military." Although this uses more words, it is worth doing. It is a more precise way to refer to your assertions of what could be taking place. Assuming there are crimes taking place, (which by the way is not a completely safe assumption) at least you are not lumping together all of Israel, including millions of Jews, no doubt many of them living in Israel, who find violence to be abhorrent. 

For the twelve years that I've been writing for the Planet, I've seen you focus repetitively on Israel and on how it is doing harm to the Palestinians. While this is a valid topic, the fact that you habitually gravitate to this subject implies that you really want to report on violence in Israel. I've sometimes seen you report on other countries, so this is not absolute. 

I've heard Jews remark that we are subject to a "P. R. War." This is something readers should think about. 

Jagjit Singh, I am not your enemy. However, I urge you to use better language in your reporting and also better substantiation so that we will have a better idea of the accuracy of your essays. 

Human beings are capable of atrocities and Jews aren't an exception. But the beginning of an atrocity is to vilify a person or group of people--let's not do that again.