In this case action speaks louder than words. Leonard was always ready to lend a hand to Israel defeat her intractable enemy. He was able to discern between the culprit and the victim, Israel. Indeed he was there when needed. While he cares for anyone who suffer, he always believed that Israel is there by right not by sufferance as Winston Churchill stated in the early 20th century.
Allow me to republish a counter to an "open letter" addressed to LC by my friend the late Salomon Benzimra, who wrote a book about the Jewish people's rights to the land of Israel, See here:
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Peoples-R ... B0065WZM14, which LC received at the time refuting Ms. Naor et al falsehoods. Ms. Naor and others tried to convince Leonard not to preform in Israel but to no avail except Leonard offered to preform for the Arabs/Palestinians in Ramallah but they rejected him.
So here is the counter letter Salomon wrote to Ms. Naor:
Mrs. Dorothy Naor
Subject: Your "Open Letter to leonard Cohen" August 4, 2009
http://www.protection-palestine.org/spi ... rticle7654
August 14, 2009
Dear Madam Naor,
I read your "open letter to Leonard Cohen," you have published, probably knowingly in a website dedicated to the "Protection of the Palestinian People." But regardless of the site, what counts is the argument that you develop in your letter. At the outset, let me say that I have rarely read such a bunch of falsehoods, ignorance, disfigurements of truth and unfounded prejudice.
With all the respect I may have for your age and your "thesis from the University of Tel Aviv," I will tell you simply that you do not know what you mean, or worse, you have been irretrievably indoctrinated by rampant propaganda of that "Palestinian people" that you defend so ardently.
I am almost certain that nothing could convince someone who has suffered like you, such brainwashing. Therefore, I do not appesantirai me. But briefly, I remind you the following FACTS, which I invite you to think about:
1. You refer to the "occupation" and "colonization" Israel five times in a text of only 1000 words. I presume you are referring to the West Bank, except for "Palestine" as a whole. This is not surprising: there is the same leitmotiv in the Palestinian propaganda that has been harped you for years. But please remove your blinders and understand that, under international law, Palestine whole returns to the Jewish people, which was decided by the community of nations at the San Remo Conference in 1920 and endorsed, unanimously in the Mandate for Palestine in 1922. For details, please inquire by reading "The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel in International Law", a book of 750 pages written by Master Howard Grief, lawyer in Jerusalem.
2. It is obvious that once the myth of the "occupation" and "colonization" has been unmasked, the entire Palestinian propaganda (and your blind support for its grotesque fabrications) will collapse like a house of cards ( and your foolish arguments). You quote extensively the concept of "ethnic cleansing", again making you the faithful mouthpiece of all Palestinians who cheered Ilan Pappe and his rag entitled "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine". But know that the so-called "historian" Pappe boasts itself to tamper with the facts in favor of ideology. This is what he himself said in an interview in Brussels newspaper Le Soir in 1999. And then there is the question of how you can support your accusation of "ethnic cleansing" while there are 1.2 million Israeli Arabs. But that would be asking too much to exercise the most basic logic.
3. You are referring to "TWELVE wars and military campaigns" of Israel confront. Very just. But have you asked to know the causes? Who attacked first in the new state of Israel in May 1948? Who created the casus belli on the eve of the Six Day War in 1967? Which violated the cease-fire in October 1973? Which triggered attacks against the civilian population of Galilee on the eve of the first Lebanon war? But if you make no distinction between aggressor and victim, if you have no notion of cause and effect, and if you have only a distorted vision of the most firmly established facts, then all your nonsense are allowed .
Without wasting more time trying to remember the facts, I will say this to Mr. Leonard Cohen. Your tour in Israel will be welcome and you will be greeted warmly by all, very many, who appreciate your talent.
Mr. Cohen, I'm sure you are alert enough to see in Ms. Naor letter embittered compilation of untruths and self-contempt that the best response and reply by cold silence and continue your tour Israel as you had planned.
And that feels snotty, fly it!
cordially
Solomon Benzimra, P.Eng.
Toronto, Canada
sbenzi@sympatico.ca
