Future Requires Acceptance

Response to Daily Herald's "There's no futre in appeasing terrorists" By warning against British policies towards Israel, London Mayor Ken Livingstone is not trying to appease the terrorists as Sheryl Jedlinski claims, but rather is considering how British citizens feel towards their government’s positions (“There’s no future in appeasing terrorists,” Fencepost, Aug. 22). There is obviously disconnect between the country’s 1.5 million Muslim citizens and the greater population, and Livingstone is trying to figure out why it exists.

Muslims in the West have continuously pleaded with their governments to rethink their policies towards Israel in an effort to bring about a final resolution in the Middle East. They have begged that unconditional support be replaced with pressure on both Palestinian and Israeli leaders. This is not a suggestion that would mean “sacrificing Israel,” but rather one that will take into account all the facts of the conflict.

The terrorists that Jedlinski refers to perhaps will not end until the entire West is destroyed, but these are not the terrorists that attacked London. The men that carried out the bombings in July were British citizens, citizens that were not born and raised in a culture that vilified the West. Britain and other Western countries can ensure that there is no repeat of this type of attack by paying more attention to their Muslims populations and accepting them as actual citizens. Once these citizens feel they are part of the West, the incentive to attack it will disappear.