LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Another side to Shalit’s release
I would like to comment on Rachel Bandler’s opinion piece on the happy release of Mr. Shalit (The Tech, Oct. 28).
We can all take joy in the end of difficult and painful situations; the release from prolonged and torturous captivity of Gilad Shalit from the hands of Hamas is no exception. And while my heart dances in celebration with his beleaguered family and countrymen I find my soul rejoicing even more along with the Palestinian people as they welcome droves of there own back into a world that, for many, is nothing like the one they left.
Bandler’s piece is absolutely correct in the facts that Mr. Shalit’s kidnap and holding was cruel and that his liberation is something to lift the spirits. Yet, Bandler omits a very important side of the story that is so interwoven to the one discussed that its absence I find deeply disturbing. We cannot forget that there are thousands of men and women who have tried to protect their families and their homes, thousands of men and women who have been imprisoned, abused, and neglected for decades, thousands of men and women who over the last three-quarters of a century have seen only war as a global political issue if further thrust upon them and which continually corrodes the possibly of prosperity.
The saga of Shalit highlights the profound disparities that continue to mount between two peoples that live only feet apart. But what I find more troubling than the poverty-stricken and besieged Gaza Strip, the apartheid-like atmosphere, or the lack of motivation to concede and live in the modern world, is the seeming neglect of this disparity.
Also, just because someone goes to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology does not give them the right to quote Einstein in a political-opinion piece.
Henry G. Skupniewicz ’13