The shooting attack on the Jerusalem seminary is a sad continuation of violence in this asymmetrical conflict. My question is: What makes these deaths any more valuable and newsworthy than the 60 civilian or the 120 Palestinian deaths that happened in Gaza this past week, including a 1-month-old baby? A greater than 30-to-1 Palestinian-to-Israeli death ratio is not unusual in this conflict.
Gush-shalom, an Israeli peace group, released its 2006-07 death figures: 816 Palestinian deaths to 37 Israeli deaths. If we applied the same prejudicial language in reverse, we would view this seminary as a "militant madrassa" and the violence as a "response" to the deaths last week.
My concern is that Americans have become so desensitized by "reality distortion" the last 40 years that they are incapable of understanding the human value of Arab life.
Maha Barrani
Salt Lake City