Dear Editor:

In Mel Pearlman’s Aug. 9, article, “The myth of the two-state solution,” he says, “I support the two-state solution I described in the beginning of this column, but it will never become a reality if the nations of the world continue to engage in fantasy diplomacy and the pandemic of the new and old anti-Semitism currently infecting the world is not eradicated.”

It is impossible to eradicate all forms of anti-Semitism. The Jewish people have been persecuted for 4,000 years with no end in sight.   

Many people would like to believe the Palestinians and Israelis will one day share a mutual peace as equals. However, a more realistic starting point would be the removal of the second paragraph in the Hamas Charter calling for the obliteration of Israel.

The second paragraph of the Hamas Charter states, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam obliterates it, just as it obliterated others before it (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).”

Let’s start the process here locally and join hands with our neighbors and friends and the leadership in the Jewish and Muslim communities agreeing on just one thing: Removal of the paragraph in the Hamas Charter calling for Israel’s obliteration.

The Holocaust Memorial Research and Education Center could invite leaders such as Hassan Shibly, Rasha Mubarak, Jim Coffin of the Interfaith Council, Said Lutfi, Imam Musri, Imam Tariq Rashid and Bob Horner of St. Lukes UMC to sign a letter of commitment demanding Hamas remove its call for the obliteration of Israel as worded in the second paragraph of the Hamas Charter.

If we can’t all agree the obliteration of Israel is a bad thing we have more significant problems to internalize.

Alan Kornman

The United West