Fwd: Isaac Asimov on the future of Israel

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ron Ruggieri <radicalron72647@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 21 May 2021 at 12:59
Subject: Isaac Asimov on the future of Israel
To: Letters <letters@latimes.com>

[ From New York and California to Illinois and Utah, the recent conflict between Israel and Gaza has generated a disturbing backlash against American Jews – who have found themselves the targets of death threats, hate speech and violent physical attacks.

"Stop telling me this is about Israel and Gaza," said a New Yorker who was confronted by a pro-Palestinian mob on his way to synagogue this week. "My people are being targeted across the United States in broad daylight. This is textbook anti-Semitism, and we will continue to live in danger until the public starts to recognize it for what it is."

His remarks were a common refrain rippling across U.S. Jewish communities in recent days. Here's a look at some recent incidents throughout the country.]

"I am frequently asked if I have visited Israel, whereas yet, it is simply assumed that I have. Well, I don't travel. I really don't, and if I did, I probably wouldn't visit Israel. I remember how it was in 1948 when Israel was being established and all my Jewish friends were ecstatic, I was not. I said: what are we doing? We are establishing ourselves in a ghetto, in a small corner of a vast Muslim sea. The Muslims will never forget nor forgive, and Israel, as long as it exists, will be embattled. I was laughed at, but I was right. I can't help but feel that the Jews didn't really have the right to appropriate a territory only because 2000 years ago, people they consider their ancestors, were living there. History moves on and you can't really turn it back. (#92 ff.)"