I am responding to the front page article (Israeli PM Draws Red Line To Prevent Iranian Nuke, The Daily News, Sept. 28), which is getting plenty of attention, but possibly for all the wrong reasons. Yes, Mr. Netanyahu looked ridiculous with his Wile E. Coyote cartoon diagram but sadly, what this man is saying is not at all funny.

Netanyahu’s speech had one aim: to urge the world to wage war on Iran. He’s a dangerous man who is accused of using chemical weapons like white phosphorous on the defenseless Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza War in January 2009 and he enjoys telling other countries whom they should side with.

Canada needs to stop marching to the beat of his war drum, as it is painfully obvious he is definitely offbeat. Would you be surprised to know that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also spoke to the UN General Assembly the same day, albeit without any childish props, minutes before Mr. Netanyahu’s bizarre orchestrated media distraction?

Is it possible that Netanyahu is willing to look the fool to distract the world’s attention from the ongoing expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands, and the apartheid system he is enhancing in the West Bank, along with his authoritarian dominion over the world’s largest open-air prison in Gaza, which has been under a ruinous military blockade/occupation for over 40 years?  The annual general assembly gathering of world leaders is designed to allow the opportunity to advance world peace. Mr. Abbas, gave a speech focused entirely on facts and figures of Israeli crimes and occupation and urged a peaceful settlement along the territorial lines of pre-1967 Israel-Palestinian borders.

Mr. Abbas, described persistent Israeli crimes in the occupied West Bank and called for an end to what he described as “a campaign of ethnic cleansing” and “war crimes,” and their potential to eliminate any chance for a peaceful settlement. Abbas called on the international community to “compel” Israel “to respect the Geneva Conventions, to lift the blockade of Gaza and stop the collective punishment of a defenseless civilian population.”

Instead of responding to the valid concerns of Mr. Abbas about the suffocating and brutal Israeli military occupation for over four decades, Mr. Netanyahu chose to use the podium for grand-scale war mongering with his little Grade 3 cartoon drawing. It appears the media took the bait and elevated Netanyahu’s foolish cartoon gambit, overshadowing the far more rational speech by Mr. Abbas asking for justice, respect, and peace in the heart of the Middle East, while Mr. Netanyahu wants to start the next world war. 

This important speech by Mr. Abbas apparently didn’t happen for most of you — thanks to a sometimes biased media who are all too often driven by bombastic sensational nonsense rather than properly balanced journalism.

D. WALSH

Kamloops