Letter to the editor

There are some who believe that a university gazette should stick to university matters and refrain from any comments on world affairs. I personally disagree with this idea, and so apparently do you since you have published Marnie Pomeroy's letter about Hamas, Hezbollah and Israeli action in Lebanon ("No U.S. spin needed," Sept. 7, 2006, p. 2). In all fairness I ask you to allow me to comment on her letter:

Apparently only Israel has the right to protect itself. Lebanon doesn't. To "protect" itself Israel bombs not only Hezbollah bunkers in south Lebanon but destroys the whole country, south, north and centre. Perhaps Holocaust is the right term for it. The Oxford English Reference Dictionary (2nd ed., 1996) defines this word as "a case of large-scale destruction or slaughter, esp. by fire or nuclear war..." True, Israel has not used nuclear weapons in this or any of its wars (this dubious distinction belongs to the United States) but there was a large-scale destruction and slaughter by fire unparalleled since the Nazi Blitzkriegs during the Second World War. And Ms. Pomeroy is surprised that Lebanon complains.

Jan Weryho, Islamic Studies
Cataloguing Librarian (retired)