Valley leaders at odds over reasons for Mideast strife

Bruce Lev says Hamas is trying to sway Israel’s election; Ray Nakley says Gaza’s been under siege for six months.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Members of Youngstown’s Arab-American community said they are frustrated with depictions of Israel as the victim in the escalating conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Organizers at the Arab-American Community Center will have events today and Tuesday to address the public with their view that the Gazans have been the true victims of violence for the past several years.

“We want to help people understand that this [conflict in Gaza] did not happen in a vacuum,” said Ray Nakley, a representative of the center. “The people of Gaza have been innocent targets for years.”

He explained that weapons fire against the Israelis is a result of Gaza’s being “under siege for the last six months.” Without water, electricity and medical assistance, Gazans rose up against Israel as a battered state, Nakley said.

But those views are not shared by everyone.

Bruce Lev, a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said the violence was brought on by the Gazans as a form of political interference less than two months before Israel’s national election.

“Hamas knows there’s an election that’s coming up quickly. What they’re doing is trying to influence the election,” Lev said.

“As far as what’s going on between Israel and Gaza,” he said, “Israelis have a right to defend themselves.”

Opposite in the belief of causation, Lev said that bombing by the Israelis came only after Hamas discontinued its truce, stocked up on ammunition, and began rocketing explosives into civilian territory in Israel.

As for blocking food, water and medical supply to Gazans, he said he finds it confusing as to why residents there are refusing assistance from Egypt, its bordering country.

“Why is Gaza not taking advantage of what Egypt is offering?” he asked. “Egypt has offered and Hamas will not send its wounded for help.”

The difference in opinion between Nakley and Lev span a range of questions on the foreign dispute, but Lev believes the situation stems from a central dilemma on which neither can agree.

“Nakley believes in a one-state solution and I believe in a two-state solution,” explained Lev, who said he’s been friends with Nakley for more than 30 years. Lev said Israel and the Palestinians will not resolve their problems and should therefore remain divided geographically.

And although they fall on opposite sides of the argument, Lev said Nakley and the Arab-American Community Center have a right to protest the attacks.

Nakley said today’s vigil and the demonstration planned for Tuesday will be mostly silent protest of the treatment of Gazans and the one-sided coverage he says the press presents on the conflict.

“We want the U.S. to help effect a cease-fire as soon as possible,” he said of the demonstration, which is part of a nationwide effort.

He added that along with spreading information, the event will be cathartic to the Arab-American community who are immigrants of Palestinian territories.

“It’s a symbolic effort out of respect for those people who are still being killed. Unfortunately, a lot people think everything’s fine,” Nakley said.