Sample letter on calling Palestinian terrorists by whitewashing names like "activists" or "militants"

To: Newsweek Magazine
To the Letter Editor: March 6, 2005

Sub: Hopes and fears in Israel

I agree with your analysis that after Arafat's death there is a long-awaited opportunity to seek peace between Palestinians and Israel. But peace can not come until terror stops and your writer solves this problem a bit too simply; by not calling the terrorists who killed 5 young Israeli civilians and injured 49 at a Tel-Aviv disco what they are; "terrorists". You call them militants" and even "Islamic Jihad activists" and that is like white-washing terrorism.
If you were uncertain once how to call Islamic Jihad, Hamas and their sort, that problem is solved now: a recent "High Level UN Panel" appointed by General Secretary Kofi Annan for this purpose gave a clear definition to terrorism: "Terrorism is an action that is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or noncombatants when the purpose of such act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population or to compel a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act" - and it goes on to say: "there is nothing in the fact of occupation that justifies the targeting and killing of civilians".

See the original UN report at: http://www.un.org/secureworld/report3.pdf , pp. 51-52, Paras 157-164.)
According to this definition there is no doubt that the Palestinian attackers of civilian targets in Sderot are terrorists. It is time that your paper contribute to progress towards peace between Palestinians and Israel by denying legitimacy to Palestinian terrorists.

Respectfully yours,
Ann-Marie Hellmann
Strasbourg, France

(You should give your name and city; and separately your address and your daytime contact data, like cellular phone number)