Dear Editor:
I was disappointed in the content of Liz Daggett’s article about the artwork exhibit in the University Center. It is not journalism; it is propaganda.
First, the United States allocates less than 1 percent of its annual budget as aid to Israel. Israel’s total aid package for Fiscal Year 2003 – according to the most recent budget – amounts to $2.1 billion in military aid and $600 million in economic assistance, not $3.5 billion. How does the author know that most of the military aid goes to “military actions against Palestinians”? She cites no sources. Second, the United States alone recognizes Israel’s right to act in self-defense. Indeed, European countries are ever more strident in their criticism of Israel. If there is “international guilt about the Holocaust,” it does not seem to be affecting Europe, where synagogues have been firebombed and Jews have been beaten as they walked the streets of Berlin or Munich.
Third, the article mentions that very little aid is given to the nation of Palestine. No nation of Palestine, however, exists or has ever existed.
The Palestinian Authority, however, claims as its two largest financial supporters the United States and Israel.
In short, this article is a sadly uninformed, biased piece of reporting. It is a disgrace to the Daily Helmsman and to the University.
Anna Johnson
Junior
History
