Dear Editor,
Please take your own advice, Ed Felien. (Please Stop! July 2024 Southside Pride). How is calling the Israelis “Nazis” an invitation to dialogue? Of course the war in Gaza is horrible, the amount of casualties is appalling, both Jewish Israelis and Palestinians—who have lived there for two millennia—need a safe homeland, and Netanyahu and his supporters are anti-Palestinian.
All wars are horrible and cause the deaths of thousands of innocent people. But in every other war, the attacker was not held responsible for safeguarding the civilian population: the ruling government was. So why aren’t you demanding that Hamas protect its Palestinian civilians?
Truthfully, Hamas has purposefully placed its military operations in densely populated areas that include apartment blocks, hospitals, mosques and schools. Hamas representatives have repeatedly stated their indifference to the deaths of Palestinians. Hamas has provided no safe passage out of areas of intense fighting. And Hamas has not shared its stockpiles of medical supplies, water, fuel and food with Palestinian civilians who desperately need them.
If dialogue towards a just and peaceful future is your goal, please provide your readers with more truthful coverage of the Gaza war. Divisive rhetoric only increases both peoples’ outrage and suffering.
Trina Porte
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Editor’s Note:
Thank you for writing.
The comparison of the Israeli war on Gaza to Nazi atrocities is, of course, not unique to me. Perhaps the best statement of it is “In the Shadow of the Holocaust” by Masha Gessen in The New Yorker, Dec. 9, 2023, in which she compares Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. Gessen is a holocaust survivor who lost her entire family to the Nazi horror.
Here is what I wrote last month:
“We have, in past issues, condemned that action [by Hamas on Oct. 7] as an atrocity. But what seems even more unthinkable than the original murders, Hamas knew their horrific actions would elicit an even more horrific response from Israel. They were willing to sacrifice the lives of innocent Palestinian women and children to score political points against Israel. That is a contemptible and compounded atrocity.”
I wrote in our January edition: “The Hamas leadership that planned and executed the Oct. 7 raid on Israel, and Netanyahu and his war cabinet must be investigated by a U.N. commission to determine whether either or both sides committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“But the atrocity committed by Hamas on October 7 cannot excuse the continued atrocities committed by Israel. One atrocity does not condone another atrocity.
“Hamas killed 1139 Israelis in their October 7 raid. Israel has killed 38,000 [now, closer to 39,000] in their retaliation.
“Is that enough?
“Do we need more?
“The standard for horrific atrocities in war was established in Gubbio in Italy. Partisans had killed a Nazi officer. The Nazis rounded up 50 Gubbio citizens and killed them. There is a mausoleum in Gubbio containing their remains that commemorates this slaughter. The Israelis are approaching the fifty to one standard set by the Nazis with a thousand times greater impact.
“Enough is enough.
“Stop the war.
“Recognize the grievances on both sides.
“Hold each side accountable for atrocities.
“Recognize the legitimacy of a Palestinian state.
“And declare peace on both sides.”
