Letters

The letters of Rue Matthiessen [“Scripted Protest,” Letters, August 28] and Lisa Gagliardi [“Wish for Peace,” Letters, August 28] have a couple of things in common: first, a failure to comprehend and accept irrefutable facts concerning current events; and, second, a tendency to rewrite history. Let us, once again, lay out some of those facts that these scribes chose to ignore in furtherance of their animus to Israel and Jews.

The Palestinians have had multiple opportunities to carve out their own nation-state; each time, they have refused and rejected the opportunity — because their real priority is the destruction of Israel.

Hamas rules Gaza. It is a terrorist organization. Its goal is the destruction of the Jewish state. It is the architect of the October 7 massacre, in which, among other things, babies were burned alive and woman were raped. They are no more than savages and need to be treated as such.

The continued existence of Hamas presents an existential threat to the security of the people of Israel. The current conflict would end immediately if Hamas surrendered and released the remaining hostages and the bodies of the dead ones.

Israel’s war against Hamas is not genocide. To use that term here is a perversion of the term used to describe the systematic annihilation of Jews during World War II. Genocide is the deliberate and intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. This is a war to destroy Hamas — nothing else. War produces collateral casualties, unfortunately, but that is not the same as genocide. And, again, we point out that the war would cease if Hamas surrendered and released the remaining hostages.

The claims of famine must be laid at the feet of Hamas, whose pilferage of supplies intended for Gazans has largely caused these problems.

There is much else, but we will curtail our response at this point.

David Saxe

Mitchel Agoos

East End Jews for Israel