More killing in Israel and Gaza
Re “Israel and Gaza militants on the brink of all-out war,” May 12
If there is one immutable rule about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is that the Israeli government will remain reactionary as long as the Palestinian leadership remains radical. There will be no “two-state solution” or political compromise as long as Hamas, a
terrorist organization, has influence among the Palestinians.
Yes, the Israeli government has been heavy-handed and insensitive at times, but self-defense is a powerful motivation for the Israelis to keep the peace on their terms.
It is time that foreign affairs observers own up to the fact that humanitarian calls for fairness will fall on deaf ears as long as Hamas embraces violence.
Tim Geddes Huntington Beach
The players change, but the game is the same.
In this round of conflict, the triggers were the eviction of some Palestinian families from the Arab section of Jerusalem, the closing of the Damascus Gate in the Arab section, and the storming of Al Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces.
Had Israel not engaged in a series of provocative steps, forces in the Gaza Strip, long locked down and utterly impoverished, would have not responded.
So here we go again, with the first words of the U.S. president in response to the situation being that Israel has the right to defend itself. Erica Hahn
Monrovia