A letter never sent

Evgeny Kissin is an extraordinary, world renowned concert pianist.  What's not quite as well known is that he's also an extraordinary advocate for Israel and the Jewish people.  See this page of his fan website, which contains the text of his "Letter that was Never Sent," along with that of an open letter he sent last year to the BBC, castigating it for its "slander and bias towards Israel, painfully reminiscent of the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda."  (Links to these can also be found on the "Library" page of his personal website as well.)

Here are a few excerpts from "A Letter that was Never Sent."

. . . Having come to the conclusion that territorial concessions to Arafat were only provoking more war, the overwhelming majority of the Israeli people voted for Sharon in the elections that took place a few months after the Camp David talks (the fairness of those elections has never been questioned even by Israel's most malicious enemies). Although the Sharon landslide crushed Bark [Barak] in those elections, he formed a government of national unity and invited his crushed adversaries from the Labour Party to join it; in particular, the well-known Shimon Peres became the Foreign Minister in that government. Once formed, the Israeli government of national unity headed by Sharon started defending its citizens against Palestinian terrorists and NEVER TARGETED A SINGLE PALESTINIAN CIVILIAN in their defensive operations (although many Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli bullets - not only because civilians inevitably die in any war, no matter whether they are being targeted or not, but also because Palestinian terrorists were using their own civilians, including children, as human shields). After all of that, in April of 2002, you declared to me in our last phone conversation that the West had to remove Sharon from power in order to achieve peace in the Middle East, that Arafat was a "poor man", whereas Sharon - "a criminal"! Such statements, T ,OBJECTIVELY not only exclude the possibility of the person who pronounces them (or just thinks this way) being my friend, they also make him/her MY ENEMY - mine, as well as all the Jewish people's; this is a fact of the objective reality, like summer is hot and winter is cold, the sun shines and stars twinkle. You say that I don't have the flexibility to accept other people's ideas - yes, I do and to a high degree (all my friends know that), but everything depends on the idea, and indeed, there are ideas which all of us don't (and shouldn't!) have the flexibility to accept. I can't accept the idea that Haman was a poor man, and Mordechai a criminal; I can't accept the idea that Hitler was a poor man, and Anelevich, a criminal; nor can I accept the idea that Arafat was a poor man, whereas Sharon was a criminal. Those who hold such "ideas" are MY AND MY ENTIRE PEOPLE'S OBJECTIVE ENEMIES.
 
[ ... ]

Yes, T, in the end we'll all die and our bodies will all rot or be cremated - but we'll enter history according to our deeds, words and beliefs (in certain situations, a word is also a deed - and a very important one). All the persecutors and butchers of my people from the Pharaohs to Andropov have already entered history as monsters, whereas all those who helped Jews in hard times are being recognized as heroes and righteous people. More and more people are realizing now that your fellow leftists who marched in the so-called "peace demonstrations" during the Cold War were naive puppets of the Evil Empire, whereas Reagan, Thatcher, Pope John Paul the 2nd and their allies (whatever one may think of the other aspects of their policies) liberated hundreds of millions of victims of Communism and saved the entire mankind from the red plague. Likewise, all the Arafats, Nasrallas, Haniyes, Ahmadinejads and their ilk will remain in history as monsters; you and your co-thinkers - as their naive puppets; whereas Jean Kirkpatrick and Oriana Fallaci, Nonie Darwish and Brigitte Gabriel - all those wonderful people with brilliant minds and courageous hearts will enter history and remain for ever as heroes.

AM YISRAEL KHAY VEKAYAM - THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL LIVE AND WILL LIVE!

(He notes that the initial of his addressee's name has been altered.)

Please do read the whole thing.