Letters to the Editor 07-26-2006
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
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- Impressions Of Israel
Impressions Of Israel
Editor, Times-Union:If anything is to be learned from the latest Middle East conflict, it is that there is no fool-proof system in preventing terrorist attacks.
I was in Israel in February. I was impressed by their tight security, especially on Israeli airliners. They have a high level of security in northern Israel around the Sea of Galilee near the Syrian and Lebanon borders. Still, as you know now it was not enough. The electronic fences and mine fields there were not enough to keep them out.
Arabs are not the problem. About 1.5 million Israeli citizens are Arabs. They vote and six of them serve in parliament. All road signs are written in Arabic, Hebrew and English. It is the Hamas and Hezbollah groups wanting to destroy Israel who are the problem.
On another level, I was with the U.S. Army in England before the invasion into France. The security there, also tight. Our letters were censored, phones were monitored and we were challenged often, everywhere. Still, the Germans seemed to know when and where every troop unit arriving in England was to be located. They always sent over the bombers or V-bombs to welcome them. The British executed spies when they caught them, but they never got them all.
England had been under constant attack for four years and still was when I arrived there in 1944. Israel, likewise, has been under nearly constant attack for decades. Even with all of their long experience with terrorists they never achieved total security.
I think our very own homeland security system faces an uphill battle with our open borders.
On a further comment: There seems to be a far greater number of Americans in Gaza City and Beirut, Lebanon, than is necessary. I am sure these people were amply warned about the dangers of traveling to or living in the Middle East. There seems to be an endless bashing of the government about getting these people evacuated quickly.
At the communion services by the garden tomb in Israel, a show of hands indicated nearly 100 percent of us were warned not to travel to the Middle East.
I know the danger when I went, and I was in the areas under attack. I certainly would not expect the government to risk other lives by sending them into a war zone to rescue those of us who went there fully knowing the dangers.
George Plew
Warsaw
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- Impressions Of Israel
Impressions Of Israel
Editor, Times-Union:If anything is to be learned from the latest Middle East conflict, it is that there is no fool-proof system in preventing terrorist attacks.
I was in Israel in February. I was impressed by their tight security, especially on Israeli airliners. They have a high level of security in northern Israel around the Sea of Galilee near the Syrian and Lebanon borders. Still, as you know now it was not enough. The electronic fences and mine fields there were not enough to keep them out.
Arabs are not the problem. About 1.5 million Israeli citizens are Arabs. They vote and six of them serve in parliament. All road signs are written in Arabic, Hebrew and English. It is the Hamas and Hezbollah groups wanting to destroy Israel who are the problem.
On another level, I was with the U.S. Army in England before the invasion into France. The security there, also tight. Our letters were censored, phones were monitored and we were challenged often, everywhere. Still, the Germans seemed to know when and where every troop unit arriving in England was to be located. They always sent over the bombers or V-bombs to welcome them. The British executed spies when they caught them, but they never got them all.
England had been under constant attack for four years and still was when I arrived there in 1944. Israel, likewise, has been under nearly constant attack for decades. Even with all of their long experience with terrorists they never achieved total security.
I think our very own homeland security system faces an uphill battle with our open borders.
On a further comment: There seems to be a far greater number of Americans in Gaza City and Beirut, Lebanon, than is necessary. I am sure these people were amply warned about the dangers of traveling to or living in the Middle East. There seems to be an endless bashing of the government about getting these people evacuated quickly.
At the communion services by the garden tomb in Israel, a show of hands indicated nearly 100 percent of us were warned not to travel to the Middle East.
I know the danger when I went, and I was in the areas under attack. I certainly would not expect the government to risk other lives by sending them into a war zone to rescue those of us who went there fully knowing the dangers.
George Plew
Warsaw
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