There is no moral equivalence between good and evil

Mohammed Alyahya is correct that “Attack in Israel shows Iran wants endless war.” (The Washington Post, Oct. 10), but Iran’s desire for endless conflict has been self evident for many years.

He’s way off base, however, in pretending there’s a moral equivalence between the brutal, incessant terrorism perpetuated by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and myriad other Palestinian Arab groups and the (obviously far too inadequate) efforts Israel has made to defend against those attacks. He’s also deluded if he really means what he wrote about an alleged unwillingness of Israel to “engage in a credible peace process.” Israel and Israelis long for a credible peace process, but the Palestinian Arabs have never been willing to join them, as was clear when, on the very day the Oslo Declaration of Principles was signed on the White House lawn, a speech by Yasser Arafat was broadcast in Jordan assuring his Arab listeners that it was all just a step in the PLO’s Plan of Stages to destroy Israel one step at a time.

Despite that, Israel repeatedly offered the Palestinians an independent state in virtually all the disputed territories, only to have each offer summarily rejected without even a counter proposal, with the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister even announcing in 2016, more than seven years ago, that they would never again negotiate directly with Israel. Alyahya’s disconnect from reason and reality is exemplified by his reference to alleged “terrorist bombings of Gazan civilians.” True, some civilians in Gaza inevitably become casualties, but that is an unavoidable consequence of war, particularly when a terrorist group like Hamas deliberately uses them as human shields because it knows how much Israel tries to avoid harming innocents and also because Hamas loves to parade any such victims in order to demonize Israel.

Giving Palestinian Arab terror groups a veto over peace has only brought misery, violence and death to both Arabs and Israelis. The brutal terror attack on Oct. 7, which proportionally was several times as deadly as 9/11, was partially an attempt to maintain that veto. Israel is in a battle between good and evil. Indeed, it is on the frontline defending America and all Western democracies in that battle. We must stand with Israel and fight so good does prevail against evil.

Alan Stein is a former longtime resident of Connecticut, a former professor at UConn’s Waterbury campus and president emeritus of PRIMER (Promoting Responsibility In Middle East Reporting).