Editor’s Note: The names of certain students mentioned in this letter have been removed at their request.

It is unfortunate that, when attempting to maintain an open discussion, the Daily Illini must resort to outrageous claims by local lunatics who have consistently proven an inability to rely on remotely credible sources. David Green’s repeated appearances, using consistently questionable evidence and often irrelevant arguments, sadly damage the reputation of the DI’s editors, who try so hard to maintain balance.

As done earlier this semester, Green chose not to attack the argument at hand (currently the conflict following the pullout from Gaza, with an accident killing 19 Palestinian civilians and subsequent attacks between the Israeli military and Hamas) but pursued a blind ranting of how Israeli occupation is the sole source of the conflict. Green included no references to the recent pullout from Gaza, an indication that he focused more on the hatred of Israel than any intelligent consideration of how to pursue peace.

In an act of blatant hypocrisy, Green argued that, with the Internet, the editors of the DI “no longer can be excused for their failure to educate themselves” on this conflict. However, he had ironically demonstrated a lack of understanding of the first rule in research, which most of us learned by high school, check sources for credibility. In all of Green’s antics against the Israeli Occupation, I have never seen him acknowledge the evidence of the billions of dollars stolen by the Palestinian Authority, when Arafat still maintained power. This evidence comes from the International Monetary Fund.

It is the choice of the readers to decide whether that is more credible than Green’s citing of Norman Finkelstein, who believes in a “Holocaust-Industry,” in which “the field of Holocaust studies is replete with nonsense, if not sheer fraud.” Israel should certainly not be immune to criticism, but false slander against Israel resolves nothing.

senior in Engineering