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What would Jesus do about the Middle East?

As a Palestinian Orthodox Christian, and as a Christian, I find the views of Wallid Shoebat, who spoke at UCLA this week, particularly offensive (“Former terrorist speaks,” News, May 26). Shoebat claims to be a Christian, but his views are completely incompatible with the teaching of Jesus Christ. Would Jesus support a country that kills Palestinian children in the Gaza and the West Bank under the cover of fighting terrorism? I wonder if Jesus would have supported a country that advocates the wholesale demolition of hundreds of homes in the Rafah refugee camp. Shoebat should learn a thing or two about the compassion and love that his proclaimed religion teaches.

Jiries Mogannam United Arab Society, al-Awda School of Dentistry

Column distorts truth more than Moore does

Garin Hovannisian’s recent column “Lauded filmmaker spreads lies, deceit” (Viewpoint, May 26) is an unfair critique of liberal America. Moore loves the United States more than any flag-waiving patriot. He is trying to make our country more free by reaching the masses.

Hovannisian’s second offense is belittling Moore’s empathy with the children of Iraq and America. He says “Moore forgot to mention the children who have been murdered in Russian gulags, killed in mass graves in Indochina, and starved to death in Cuba – by socialists like himself.” The very notion that one would compare American socialism – which stands for universal health care, human rights, and no death penalty – with oppressive totalitarian regimes is offensive and deceitful.

Moore is also accused of misleading in the case of Disney blocking the distribution of his new film. Though Disney did express this fact a year ago, it was still after the film had already been made. Moore simply waited until it was closer to being released to make this information public. Yes, it was most likely a publicity stunt to bring this to light now, but it is hardly a lie.

Lastly, in probably his most deceitful tactic, Hovannisian mentions doing a Yahoo! search for “Michael Moore” and “lies” and coming up with “over a quarter million Web sites that deal with the lies contained in his books and films.” Internet searches are not only terrible evidence, they’re also very misleading. Using the same tactic, I could tell you the first search only came up with about a quarter of a million Web sites, but when I typed in “Michael Moore” and “truth” I got well over half a million. Twice as much.

I do not think Michael Moore is a saint. It is just worthy noting that journalists are just as capable of misleading their readership as filmmakers are their audiences.

Jed Levine Second-year, international development studies