I find myself in sharp disagreement with Najwa Doughman (“Stand by Gaza,” Jan. 21). To begin with, Doughman decides to quote an opinion of Avi Shlaim, claiming that Israel’s military campaign against Hamas is an intentionally “cruel case of deliberate de-development.” Really? If this quote is supposed to refer to the deliberate de-development of a terrorist organization that has not ceased firing rockets at Israel (nearly 6,500 since 2005), then the author may be on to something. Obviously, this is not what the author means. We read in this column of all of the certainly unfortunate and tragic circumstances that the innocent bystanders of Gaza are facing, the tragedies that, while painful to watch, are inevitable in any war. What has neglected to be mentioned is why exactly these circumstances were presenting themselves in the first place. I guess it could be that the Israelis are blood-thirsty Muslim-haters who are dedicated to demolishing Gaza. Israel may have surrounded Gaza just for their own satisfaction, and Hamas may not have deserved it at all. But not based on my understanding of the situation. My understanding of the situation leads me to believe that Israel has made a countless number of concessions over the past decades, including the release of murderers of foreign (non-Israeli) descent, like one charged with killing a father and beating in the head of his toddler daughter until she reached her miserable and slow death. But maybe Israel should have a ceasefire and do it the United Nations’ way, again, the way the world approached Darfur the United Nations’ way (we need not devote much worry to Darfur anymore, though, because most of the innocent civilians there are already dead and slaughtered). And the only acknowledgment the author manages to tell us is that she is “the first to admit that Hamas has many faults.” Well that’s nice.
Charles Krauthammer’s Op/Ed article from the Washington Post (“Moral Clarity in Gaza,” Jan. 2) led me to an Associated Press article from December 27 that reported that the Israeli government issued cell phone messages to thousands of Gazan civilians, warning them to “leave homes where militants might have stashed weapons.” Doughman is accusing an Israeli campaign of brutal immorality, and here we see the Israeli government telling the civilians (which includes the enemy, incidentally) exactly what the military is going to do. I hope that Doughman finds the decency to excuse my dismay at her absurd statement that the fact that Israel has a right to defend itself is “irrelevant.” I beg the author’s pardon. I do not think that the millions of Israeli civilians would agree with that statement, civilians who can sleep tonight with a little less worry of their houses blowing up because a group of reckless Palestinian thugs find the audacity to use the homes of civilians to launch missiles aimlessly at Israeli cities, not caring where they land, and in addition not caring what happens to the families in whose houses those weapons are being hidden. I ask that the author please pardon my shock at the saturating bias that practically soaks through the paper upon which her column was printed. If it’s any satisfaction, I will be the first to admit that Israel has faults.
Jeremy Lyall Lambert
CLAS III
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