Matters Of Fact

Sent to the Boston Globe February 14: To the editor: According to Hiba Husseini, all Palestinian Arabs want is an end to the Israeli "occupation" and their own "independent state." He fails to mention that the so-called "occupation" came about when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser kicked the UN peacekeeping force out of the Sinai and his Voice of the Arabs radio station declared "The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence," and then Jordan joined the war, attacking Israel. At that time, the PLO was clear it had no interest in the areas, then occupied by Egypt and Jordan, which Husseini now claims are all the Palestinian Arabs want; its sole aim was the same as Nasser's, to destroy Israel. Despite Husseini's obfuscation, that hasn't changed, as evidenced by the way the Palestinian Arabs rejected Israel's offers of independence in 2000, 2001 and 2008,

Sent to the Boston Globe February 12: To the editor: While getting tremendous pressure, even from its friends, to refrain from going into Rafah because of the dense population, Israel provided graphic evidence of the obvious need to root Hamas from Rafah and its ability to continue to minimize civilian casualties, already evident from the fact that the ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in Gaza has been less than a quarter of that expected by the UN in urban combat. First, Israel revealed the way not only was UNRWA's main headquarters in Gaza City directly above a terror tunnel containing a major Hamas command and data processing center, but provided power for Hamas' facility and Hamas terrorists actually worked out of offices in UNRWA's headquarters! Second, Israel conducted an amazing operation in the heart of Rafah, rescuing two hostages there, killing a number of terrorists and doing it without a single civilian casualty! Without Israel rooting Hamas out of Rafah, Ha

This was sent to the MetroWest Daily News February 4 and published February 18.  To the editor: Clearly, the blame for the current situation in Gaza lies primarily with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad Fatah, the other terror groups and thousands of ordinary Gazans who perpetrated the barbaric October 7 pogrom, along with their sponsors in Iran and Qatar. However, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutteres was correct when he said that horrendous slaughter did not occur "in a vacuum," even if he was totally wrong about the context. After each previous Gaza war started by Hamas, premature ceasefires were implemented thanks to pressure from shortsighted individuals and governments, who then insisted on transferring massive amounts of assistance to Gaza, most of which was taken by Hamas and used to rearm, strengthen itself, build rockets, rocket launchers, terror tunnels and other terror facilities as it prepared to break the ceasefire when it felt strong enough. In a let

This was sent to the Washington Post on February 2. To the editor: For years, every time the Palestinian Arabs rejected peace, increased terror attacks or launched yet another war, Israel was pressured to make more concessions, rewarding Palestinian perfidy and leading to more violence and pushing peace further away. Rather than learning from those deadly mistakes, in his February 2 column, "The U.S. tacks hard toward a Mideast 'moment of truth,'" David Ignatius pushes for doubling down on them. Not even mentioned was the role the Biden Administration's pandering to the head of the snake, Iran, had in leading to Hamas' October 7 massacre. That slaughter, in which Fatah also participated, should have made it obvious even to those to whom it wasn't before that pushing for a Palestinian state prior to a fundamental change in Palestinian Arab society was insane. Sincerely, Alan Stein

This letter was sent to the Hartford Courant on January 30, 2024 regarding the suspension by several donor of funding to the puppet of Hamas known as UNRWA. Making that suspension of funding permanent would be one of the best things that could have to the Palestinian Arabs. Letter to the editor: Good news for Gaza To the editor: News that UNRWA's funding may dry up ("Finding of agency in Gaza is at risk," January 30) is good news for the people living in Gaza. For three-quarters of a century, UNRWA has subjugated the descendants of the Arabs who left their homes during the war they and their brethren waged to destroy the modern miracle of the third Jewish Commonwealth in the Land of Israel. It has prevented them from building new lives the way many millions of other refugees of the period did, whether from Nazi concentration camps, India, Pakistan, China or numerous other places. If UNRWA's funding does dry up permanently, the next generation of children in Gaza, Jude

This letter was also about the ICJ's perverse refusal to throw out the absurd case against Israel brought by South Africa. It was sent to the Los Angeles Times on January 28, 2024.  Letter to the editor: Raz Segal gets the meaning of the ICJ's preliminary ruling backwards To the editor: Ignoring her reference to the self-imposed and self-perpetuated disaster the people who decades later adopted the identity of "Palestinian" eventually started calling a Nakba, Raz Segal completely misinterprets the significance of the perverse ruling by the "International Court of Justice." The ICJ is a political body rather than a true court, with the "justices" political appointees beholden to their own governments, most of which are either innately implacably hostile to Israel or intimidated by the huge Arab/Muslim bloc. Ergo, there was no chance the ICJ would do the right thing and dismiss the baseless and malicious South African case out of hand while reprimand

This was sent to the Jerusalem Post on January 27 after the U(K)C(I)J irresponsibly failed to throw out the perverse case brought against Israel by South Africa, whose current government seems to be attempting to do the almost impossible and reach the level of immorality achieved by the former Apartheid government. Letter to the editor: Responding to the ICJ To the editor: The following two paragraphs should comprise Israel's complete response in a month to the demands of the ICJ: Although, as the court is undoubtedly aware, the charges against Israel filed by South Africa are baseless, beyond absurd and the court should have admitted that according to its own rules it did not have jurisdiction and, failing that, simply dismissed them out of hand, we will still provide the following report as unjustifiably demanded by the court. As you are undoubtedly similarly aware, throughout the conflict started by the barbaric terrorists from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah and suppose

This was sent to the Washington Post on January 27, 2024 in response to an editorial calling on Israel to do virtually the opposite of what it really needs to do. To the editor: The January  22 editorial, "As hostages suffer, Israel needs to make tough strategic choices," is correct about Israel needing to make tough strategic choices, but the path Israel needs to choose is virtually the opposite of what the editorial advises. Time after time, Israel has given in to outside pressure and chosen short term calm over strategic necessities. The October 7 massacre was in large measure a consequence of that shortsightedness. One example is the way Israel gave in to the pressure to allow building materials into Gaza after previous wars started by Hamas, pretending to believe the assurances that measures would be taken to make sure it would be used for civilian purposes and none would get into the hands of Hamas. The extensive network of terror tunnels, more extensive than the London

The Huffington Post is not known for treating Israel fairly. The February 1 article A Major U.N. Agency Is In Chaos. It’s Making Life Even Harder In Gaza  was no exception. So I sent the following letter to the Huffington Post at corrections@huffingtonpost.com, with a copy to the pro-terrorists, anti-Israel author Akbar Shahid Ahmed (akbar.ahmed@huffpost.com): Re the February 1, 2024 article "A Major U.N. Agency Is In Chaos. It’s Making Life Even Harder In Gaza" (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-un-unrwa-gaza-israel-aid_n_65bc2d3ee4b0a3aad5a464d7) by Akbar Shahid Ahmed: Besides being totally misguided, the article is infused with factual errors. In terms of being misguided: The article totally whitewashes the utter failure of UNRWA, which would have faded away seven decades ago if it hadn't already failed. It also whitewashes the way UNRWA, to greatly understate the situaion, is part of the problem. It's been no secret that UNRWA schools have been educating children