I have just taken a tour through “Cancerland” with Bill Cameron (“Chasing The Crab,” May). It is a frightening place where many of us will have to go, but now we can take the spirit of Mr. Cameron with us. He has asked all the questions and answered some of them, while we have learned about medicalspeak and about his courage. Thank you for publishing his article; I am so glad he wrote it. My only regret is that I never knew him.
Beverly Watson
Cobourg, Ontario
As I read Bill Cameron’s rendering of his encounter with cancer, my heart broke. But his essay was also, somehow, restorative. I recognize that death is part of a basic equation—every day, a certain number of us will be born, and so a certain number must also die. Some equivalent balance is needed, without which none of us could exist.
With Mr. Cameron’s article, I have experienced vicariously the process of negotiating this circumstance—the situation of knowing you are soon dying; the mind-blowing thought of no longer existing. Human beings are sentimental, and so the topic is emotional. All of which made this calm, dignifying essay such a gift. Mr. Cameron had the talent, but also the discipline and composure to articulate this huge yet puny thing. I feel better having read it.
Ann Dean
Toronto, Ontario
A War For Israel
David Berlin misses an important distinction in his assessment of the Disengagement Plan in Gush Katif (“Israel On The Brink,” May). The “Zionist dream” he describes in conjunction with settler ideology, with its emphasis on redemption and the miraculous, is not characteristic of all Zionists, nor must it imply the defence of Israeli settlements at all costs.
Theodor Herzl, the father of modern-day Zionism, envisioned the Jewish homeland as a geopolitical safe haven for a wandering nation, not the recreation of a Biblical kingdom. Herzl’s dream should not be conflated with the dogmatic Zionism of certain Orthodox Jews, including many settlers in the occupied territories, whose mandate has a more metaphysical ring. They will defy their government and threaten war with their fellow Israelis out of loyalty to a higher ideal: speeding the coming of the Messiah. Other Orthodox factions, meanwhile, consider it the utmost form of heresy to tamper with Jewish destiny by attempting to effect political revolution.
Sharon’s waffling about the status of the occupied territories is worrying, as it reflects his allegiance to political gain rather than a particular vision of Israeli nationalism—or, better yet, a commitment to peace. Even more frightening, however, are those who would throw their children in front of tanks out of reverence for a contentious version of messianic history. Let us not allow them to speak for Zionism as a whole.
Lauren Bialystok
Toronto, Ontario
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