Place the blame on Hamas

Place the blame on Hamas

EDITOR

I would like to respond to a letter published on January 5th, titled “Truth about Israel is AWOL”. The letter claims that there is a conspiracy of the media not tell the truth about the war in Gaza. Israel supposedly is committing terrible war crimes in Gaza but due to some “secret law that prevails over the media” the American people are not given this information.

The facts however point in the opposite direction. The traditional excuse for Palestinian terrorism used to be the Israeli “occupation.” Three and a half years ago Israel voluntarily withdrew completely from Gaza. Not one Israeli soldier or settler remained. At the same time the western nations donated billions of dollars for the economic recovery of Gaza. Since there was no more occupation and the economy was going to flourish there were no more excuses for further terrorism.

The Palestinian people, however, elected a certified terrorist organization, Hamas, to their government. Hamas, who publicly calls for the total destruction of Israel and the murder of all its Jewish citizens, started immediately to carry out its plan. The money given by the West was not used for the benefit of the citizens but rather for building infrastructure of terror and purchasing tens of thousands of missiles. Four hundred members of the opposition party were brutally killed, some of them thrown alive from the roofs of their houses.

In the following years Hamas started a terror campaign against Israeli towns. Ten thousand rockets were fired towards innocent Israeli civilians. One million Israeli citizens had to live for years under the threat of Hamas rockets. Endless efforts to convince Hamas to discontinue its campaign failed. They trusted Israel not to retaliate against them, since they use their own citizens as a human shields around their launching pads, and Israel would do anything to avoid the loss of innocent lives.

When Hamas tripled its daily attacks, Israel decided to protect its citizens. If there ever was a justified war, this is the one. The media is not condemning Israel for this war, but there is no media conspiracy here. They are just telling the plain truth.

A. ZEEV RABINOWITZ

Youngstown

Shifting blame in Gaza

EDITOR:

We could keep playing the blame game for months and years to come.

All we ever hear is Hamas ended the brokered six months truce cease fire, Why don’t we ever hear that weeks after the so-called cease fire was implemented that the Israeli occupation forces regularly entered and carried out operations in the Gaza Strip? They demolished homes and murdered simple hard working (when they have work) people like me and you. They have repeatedly open and closed (more closed then opened) all the crossings leading into the Gaza Strip, not allowing humanitarian aid or goods to enter or leave, strangling the economy and the life of the Palestinian people.

The so-called war on the Hamas infrastructure ended the first day that the Israeli Occupation forces bombed its first target killing 200 innocent civilians. For every action there is a reaction.

As of the time I wrote this letter, 570-plus people have been killed and over 3,000 have been injured.

LANEEN NISER

Liberty