Get the story straight!

Gershon Baskin’s “Getting the story straight” (Encountering Peace, April 5) is an excellent example of the well-known saying “A half-truth is a whole lie.”

The half-truth of the article lies in its extensive praise for Hamas. Mr. Baskin points out that “Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council election”; that “Hamas is clean and not corrupt like the Arafat regime”; that “kids go to school”; that “social services are provided”; that “there is a system of law and order”; and that “six universities are working.” Here comes the rest of the truth. The Gaza Strip has been provided with nearly a billion dollars per year in relief aid. Unfortunately, much of this enormous amount of money has been used to build up an extensive military organization; prepare thousands of rockets and missiles to be fired into Israel; construct sophisticated tunnels through which Hamas militants can enter Israel to attack Israeli civilians; and run UNRWA schools, in which children are taught that Israelis are vicious murderers who must be uprooted from captured Palestinian lands, and that Hamas will continue its “armed resistance” to rid the world of the cruel Zionist entity no matter how long it takes.

Worst of all, the nearly 2 million people living in the Gaza Strip must continue to live like refugees in order to keep world attention focused on the Hamas agenda.

This is why so many countries have designated Hamas a terrorist organization. NATHAN AVIEZER

Petah Tikva