Dear Editor,
First, and foremost, I am Jewish. I believe that Israel has a right to exist and defend itself, and that Hamas is a barbaric, brutal, inhumane, sadistic, and unconscionable group of bloodthirsty savages, who have butchered women and children, and have taken Israelis hostage, and are using them as human shields, and who need to be wiped out, down to the last man. No question about it!
Having said that, what Netanyahu is doing now to Gaza, by leveling and reducing to rubble what seems like every building in the territory, will not eliminate every member of Hamas, and will only contribute to the creation of more terrorists, to take the place of the ones who have been killed.
There is no easy solution to this ongoing, stalemated problem. The only way that Hamas and Netanyahu can remain in power is to keep the two adversaries in this conflict at perpetual war. Their power depends on fear. We already know that in the Hamas charter, it is stated that Israel must be wiped off the face of the Earth. This cancer, Hamas, needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth, and soon.
With Israel going into Gaza now with a ground attack, and committing acts that alienate the Palestinians more, they won’t eliminate Hamas, they’ll only create more terrorists and will make Israel less safe. And the endless cycle will continue, uninterrupted. Retribution is not a strategy, it has never worked.
The only way to achieve peace is to undo the damage that Netanyahu and the far right radicals have done, when they undermined the more rational Israeli groups and rational Palestinians, and promoted Hamas, causing Palestinians into having an extremist group to head them, and pushing people more into supporting them.
What we need is a political solution. That’s the only way to have lasting peace there. But, that’s a long way off, and there is a lot of extreme bitterness between these two adversaries.
Atrocities committed to avenge atrocities are condemned by most civilized countries in the world. Cutting off food, water, and electricity to even hospitals, and to all the Palestinians living in Gaza, has to be condemned. What we all need to do to achieve the objective is to keep our eye on the endgame. How do we make Israel safer? And we need to take a step back out of the policies that clearly do not work. And yes, if the Netanyahus and Hamases stay in power, that cannot happen.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have protested in the streets against Netanyahu’s lessening democracy, and also disagree with his far right government perpetuating this conflict, by building endless settlements in occupied territories. There has to be a two state solution. That is the only way out of this endless cycle of terrorism, revenge, and downright lunacy.
Not to sound like some pollyannish, pie in the sky, cockeyed optimist, but if all parties could just listen to what John Lennon said, which was, “All we are saying, is give peace a chance.”
Mel Shuller
Montgomery