Dealing with Gaza

Regarding “IDF fires first warning shots at Gazans sending kites” (June 10), isn’t it time for Israel to warn Hamas that incendiary kites and balloons directed at civilian targets are internationally forbidden military acts, in the same category as nerve gas, that justify full military punishment?

If Israel responds by destroying a military target in Gaza for each kite and balloon that does damage, it may stop this threat quickly. NAFTALI WAGSCHAL

Brooklyn, NY

In “Cut the politics” (June 8), the writer totally fails to understand that Hamas and its Gazans do not need to negotiate with Israel. Its leaders have everything they will ever want: universal approbation, unlimited wealth and a totally suppressed population.

This is a population that is daily fed by the hand that it bites and whose leaders have the neighboring Jews to blame for whatever suffering they wish to inflict upon their people. What possible terms for negotiation – other than our national suicide – can we offer that will give anything to these leaders better than they already have?

Hamas enjoys unlimited wealth from Europe, the US and Iran; an endless supply of today’s equivalent of suicide bombers; and a propaganda machine that makes Goebbel’s efforts look like elementary school lessons in composition.

Sympathy for the plight of the average resident of Gaza is only natural – so what !

The Cold War came to an end when Ronald Reagan upped the poker game stakes and the Soviet system’s corruption was exposed to daylight. The end of Hamas will come from such an approach – nothing else. KALMAN BOOKMAN

Jerusalem