I read with interest the four letters written in response to the profile of Professor Dan Kurtzer (cover story, April 4). The four letters show biased misrepresentations, and are unsubstantiated on most of the facts.
I would invite the readers of PAW to read a well-documented, factual, and rational article by Michael Oren *84 *86, “Israel’s Resilient Democracy,” published in the journal Foreign Policy (April 5). This article was written in response to some of Israel’s present-day critics. Michael Oren, an academic and historian (Six Days of War; Power, Faith, and Fantasy), is the Israeli ambassador to the United States. PAW readers may remember a published interview with him (A Moment With, May 12, 2010). Better yet, as he is one of our own, PAW should invite Ambassador Oren to respond to the aforementioned inflammatory and inaccurate letters.
The cliches and one-liners in the four letters are reminiscent of the mood and sentiment on the Princeton campus that I experienced as an undergraduate many years ago and that were ubiquitous in this country at the time. In contrast to Jacob Denz ’10’s opening comment, Israel’s role in the Middle East is in fact an “ancient” problem. One-sided and repackaged statements in these letters are simply counterproductive and may represent anti-Semitism by another name.