Glass houses

Regarding “The curious State Department announcement on Israeli settlements” (Comment & Features, August 2), people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

The US State Department consistently shows bias against Israel while ignoring Palestinian anti-Israel threats and incitement. Its latest tirade against Israel is again about the so-called illegitimate settlements, although nowhere in any document or agreement is the building of towns and villages or so-called settlements illegitimate.

This obsession with tiny Israel, to the exclusion of the many trouble spots around the world, borders on the obscene. It never enters the minds of most Americans that they – the Europeans, Asians and others who live in the US – invaded, conquered, occupied and settled a land belonging to other peoples.

To those who believe in the Bible, on the other hand, Israel belongs to the Jewish people, who were given it over 3,500 years ago by the Creator of the Universe, who owns all. This is even recognized in the Koran (Night Journey 17:100-104: “Then We [Allah] said to the Israelites: Dwell in this land [the Land of Israel]. When the promise of the hereafter [end of days] comes to be fulfilled, We [Allah] shall assemble you [the Israelites] all together [in the Land of Israel].”

If it says so in the Bible and in the Koran, why should the State Department argue the opposite?

CYRIL ATKINS Beit Shemesh