Former professor Joseph Levine is, of course, entitled to his opinions on Israel [“Why challenge to Israel is felt as fear,” Recorder, June 22] and if he would prefer to have the current state of Israel eliminated and replaced with a Palestinian state, he is naturally entitled to this view. But he should get his facts straight.

One, return to Zion has been an integral part of Judaism since at least the first exile to Babylonia, in 586 BC. The last line of the Seder service, at Passover, a rite that is at least 2,000 years old, is “Next Year in Jerusalem.” As the Psalms say, “If I forget you Zion, may my right hand forget its cunning.” There are many other examples in the liturgy of the continuing basic role of Israel in the Jewish religion, even since diaspora.

Jews lived consistently in Palestine for over 3,000 years, including in the years following the diaspora beginning in 70 AD. Periodically leaders, like Sabbatai Zvi in the 17th century, even led caravans of miserable Jews, trying to return. The Jewish population in Palestine rose and fell, depending on the level of persecution or tolerance by the Fatimid, Crusader, Ottoman, British, etc. overlords. While Zionism, like other European minority nationalisms, became most effective beginning in the late 19th century, the impulse to return to Israel was always a fundamental part of Judaism.

Secondly, pro-Palestinian demonstrations are markedly different from traditional civil rights demonstrations. Civil rights demonstrations did not call for the death and destruction of their opponents. While some pro-Palestinian marches are peaceful, and call for a cease-fire and a Palestinian state, many others are brimming with barely repressed violence and anger.

Protesters have splashed red paint over the homes of Jews, and have advocated eradicating Israel. The demonstrators are often masked, to avoid identification and penalties for violation of law. The pro-Israel marches lack this feeling of rage, and never seek death or destruction of the Palestinians. The true nonviolent demonstrations of the civil rights leaders and Gandhi shamed their opponents by their calm and moral quality, and never disguised the identity of the marchers.

It is true that much of the last 50 years, and particularly the last nine months have been traumatic for the Palestinians, but that is largely based upon the mistakes and callousness of their leaders, not Zionism. Palestinians were offered a partition of the land in 1936, 1947, and 2000 and consistently rejected any offers. Hamas explicitly rejoices in Palestinian casualties, in order to advance its interests.

What is curious is the obsession with Israel, given all the atrocities in the world over the last 50 years. Tibetans have become a minority in their own country, with their monasteries and religion repressed, if not destroyed. One million Uyghurs are in concentration camps; while 500,000 people have been killed in Darfur in the past decade, 700,000 in Syria.

The Christian population in the Middle East, which predates the Arabs, has been driven into exile, along with the Jewish populations in the Levant and North Africa where they lived for more than 1,000 years. Yet, Israel, whose archaeologists have carefully preserved and expanded knowledge of the Canaanite, Philistine, Greco Roman, Umayid, Abbasid, Fatimid, and Ottoman inhabitants of the region, is vilified.

In a Palestinian state, ancient history would be at serious risk of irreversible destruction. Look at the dynamiting of pagan temples in Palmyra and Buddhas in Afghanistan, the bulldozing of all history under the Al Asqa mount by the Waafq, and the intentional destruction of synagogues and Jewish historical sites throughout the Middle East.

Opinions can always vary; but at least recognize facts.

Babette Krolik lives in Warwick.