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Editor:
While the Wildcat certainly has a legal right, as well as a journalistic responsibility, to publish letters with a wide diversity in viewpoint, it has no obligation to publish slander or stupidity. Which is why I was outraged at Mr. Morris' letter ("Israeli interests biggest motivator in U.S. bombings," Sept. 9).
It would be hard to refute Morris' positions, simply because there is little factual content to argue with. The letter is a patchwork of unsupported personal attacks and name calling. The accusations and choice of targets (Israel, Clinton, AIPAC) are in keeping with the typical anti-Semitic/anti-Zionist line.
Morris refers to the state of Israel (which he insists on putting in quotes) as "first-rate butchers, subverters and terrorists," AIPAC as a "sinister gang" and Prime Minister Netanyahu as "Netanyahoo." This invective apparently suffices in his mind as a substitute for any attempt to rationally defend his position.
The only factual content in the letter is a quote from the Seattle Times.. As the UA library does not carry that paper, I do not know whether the errors in the quoted materials are Morris's or that paper's, but I have read the speech by Prime Minister Netanyahu, and it contains none of the statements attributed to him. Specifically, he did not call anyone "fanatic Islamic perverts." The correct quote is: "nor, I must say, do we have a quarrel with Islam... It is with those militant fanatics who pervert the central tenets of a great faith, toward violence and world domination." There is no mention of "the Israeli monopoly of nuclear arms in the region," nor demands that the U.S. "destroy the nations of Iraq and Iran."
If Morris wants to degenerate from reasoned debate to name calling, that is his prerogative. But I might hope that the editors of the 'Wildcat' have some standards as to what they will and will not print. Or is it possible that they do not recognize anti-semitism when they see it?
Daniel M. Israel
graduate research assistant aerospace and mechanical engineering
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