Matters Of Fact

 Letter to the editor:  Dear Editor: In the June 15 article "U.S.-built pier in Gaza wondering whether U.N. will keep delivering aid" (sic), I find the alleged concern about whether aid workers from "the U.N. and independent humanitarian groups ... could cooperate with the U.S. military-backed, Israeli military-secured project without violating core humanitarian principles of neutrality and independence" to be rather absurd given that most of the aid they deliver gets stolen by Hamas, effectively making them allies of that terror group. Sincerely, Alan Stein Submitted to the Hearst papers in Connecticut, June 15, 2024

Dear Editor: The editorial "Four hostages are free. Now, get to work on a truce" shows the Washington Post hasn't learned from the mistakes of the past. Hamas started wars in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021. Each truce led to Hamas not just rearming, but strengthening itself until it was able to perpetrate its barbaric massacre October 7. After that horrific pogrom, President Biden said Hamas must be destroyed. He was obviously correct. Until Hamas is effectively destroyed, there can be no permanent truce, no peace, and no reasonable hope for a better future for the people in Gaza, people who overwhelmingly approve of the crimes Hamas committed October 7. Meanwhile, I'd like to hear an explanation of how the ceasefire proposal President Biden curiously said was made by Israel provides for the elimination of Hamas. Sincerely, Alan Stein Submitted to the Washington Post, June 11, 2024

To the editor: In the June 7 Boston Globe article about an Israeli strike killing dozens of terrorists  operating out of a United Nations school in Gaza ("Israeli strike kills dozens at shelter"),  Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, is quoted as saying "attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law." Aside from the fact that those buildings lost their protected status when they are used by terrorists, it has been known for many years that almost all UNRWA facilities in Gaza house or are located about terrorists, weapons, rockets or command facilities. Lazzarini's assertion leaves just two possible inferences: he is either incredibly incompetent or despicably complicit in Hamas' misuse of UNRWA. Sincerely, Alan Stein Sent to the Boston Globe June 7, 2024

Dear Editor: The editorial "What friends of Israel and the Palestinians should be demanding now" reminded me of the famous quote "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," generally attributed to Edmund Burke. Today, it might be modified to read "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is to implement a 'permanent' cease-fire between good and evil." There have been too many cease-fires to count between Israel and the Hamas terrorists controlling Gaza, each broken by Hamas, the most notable example being the barbaric massacre it perpetrated - with the help of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah and thousands of "innocent Gaza civilians" - on October 7. Yet another cease-fire, even if it's called a "permanent" one, will only lead to a repetition. In a brief moment of moral clarity in the aftermath of October 7, President Biden asserted Hamas must be eliminated. It was true when Pres

Dear Editor: Unless one carefully reads between the lines of the coverage of the tragic fire in the humanitarian zone in the al-Mawasi region, one would not know it was a result of Hamas storing munitions in the compound where Hamas commanders Yassin Rabia and Khaled Najjar were located and storing stolen gasoline in the humanitarian zone. Most probably incorrectly thought the deaths were caused by the Israeli strike hitting the two terrorists, unaware that it was a precision strike using tiny 17 kg bombs incapable of damaging the humanitarian zone located a mile away. Ironically, the pressure which led Israel to delay dealing with Hamas in Rafah before Ramadan, along with the transfer of massive amounts of "humanitarian aid" to Gaza - most of which was stolen by Hamas - likely played a role in the tragedy. It gave Hamas at least three extra months during which it reinforced itself with deadly arms smuggled in from Egypt and stockpiled deadly explosives around Rafah, likely i

Dear Editor: The headline read "Netanyahu admits Rafah airstrike a 'tragic mistake'" and the article stated that an Israeli airstrike "set fire to a camp housing displaced Palestinians and, according to local officials, killed at least 45 people." After Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at central Israel, with some of my friends in Netanya hearing the booms of Iron Dome intersections barely a week after I left that city, Israel targeted two of the terrorists involved with two precision bombs, just 17 kg apiece, about a mile from the camp. Videos posted by Arabs in Gaza showed the explosions from the bombs were confined to those buildings, far from the camp. The people were killed thanks to a fire started by secondary explosions of rockets, munitions or incendiary devices belonging to Hamas or other terror groups in Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu has made many mistakes. Falsely implying Israel bore any responsibility for the deaths in the Al-Mawasi designated hum

To the editor: Just ten days after Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah, along with other Gaza terror groups and thousands of ordinary civilians, began the current Gaza war with their barbaric terror attack, Israel was being loudly condemned for killing more than 500 civilians in a missile strike on the Al-Ahli Hospital. Only later did the truth come out: No Israeli missiles struck the Al-Ahli Hospital. No Israeli missiles struck anywhere near Al-Ahli Hospital. Indeed, nothing struck the Al-Ahli Hospital; rather, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket misfired and instead of killing innocent Israelis, fell in a parking lot by the Al-Ahli Hospital and killed about a tenth of the number Hamas said an Israeli missile killed. One would have thought the world and the media would have learned a lesson. Sadly, it clearly hasn't. Immediately after a fire apparently claimed the lives of dozens of Arabs in the Al-Mawasi designated humanitarian area, once again Israel was blamed and widely

Dear Editor: The headline read "Israeli attack on Gaza tent camp kills 45" and Israel drew worldwide criticism and a Security Council meeting was called, but Israel didn't attack that tent camp and the people who tragically died were killed by a fire started by explosions from rockets, munitions or bombs belonging to Hamas or some other terror group in Gaza. Israel dropped two precision 17 kg bombs, the smallest available, on a building containing Hamas terrorists about a mile from the location of the fire. Those bombs could not possible cause a fire that far away. Didn't we see the same story play out ten days after Hamas started the war with the barbaric October 7 massacre. A Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket killed perhaps 50 people in a parking lot near the Al-Ahli hospital, but before that became known headlines falsely blamed Israel for killing more than 500 people by bombing that hospital. When will we ever learn to not fall for anti-Israel propaganda? Sincerely

Dear Editor: The MetroWest Daily News incorrectly reported, in the May 26 article "Israel continues strikes after World Court ruling," that the judges "ordered Israel to halt its offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah." It repeated that error in the article "Israel: Order doesn't rule out its entire offensive." The latter article actually contradicts itself when it quotes Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice, saying "The state of Israel shall (...) immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." Since Israel's actions defending against the avowedly genocidal Hamas terrorists has not, is not and will not do anything that could bring about the "physical destruction in whole or in part" of the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza, false

To the editor: Reading the text and opinions accompanying of the International Court of Justice ruling, reported inaccurately in the Boston Globe article "UN court says Rafah offensive must end,"  reveals it was essentially an exercise in demonizing Israel and trying to bluff the target of the October 7 massacre into not exercising its inalienable right to self-defense. Israel is already doing far more than required under international law to protect civilians in Gaza, including Rafah, and to enable to the free flow of humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing. Ergo, complying with those portions of the ruling will not require any change in Israel's conduct of what remains a defensive, just and necessary war against an enemy with a declared goal of genocide. By their recent perverse rulings, understandably cheered by Hamas and other terror groups, the ICJ and ICC have discredited themselves. They are now tools of the world's most despicable regimes, subverting the i

 Dear Editor: Former Senator Patrick Leahy wants our government to apply his namesake law to Israel and sanction units of the Israeli Defense Forces on the basis of alleged gross violations of human rights. Colonel Richard Kemp, commander of British forces in Afghanistan, considers the Israeli army the most moral in the world, more moral than our American army and more moral than his own British army. Richard Spencer, recognized as our leading expert in urban warfare, says the Israeli army has taken steps to protect the civilian population of its enemies never before taken by any other army in history, including our American army. Unless we are to apply a double standard to Israel, our only reliable friend and ally in the volatile Middle East, if we are to sanction any units of its army, then we must also sanction units of every other army in the world, including our own. I oppose sanctioning our American army and I oppose sanctioning the Israeli army, particularly at this moment when

 May 14 marked the seventy-sixth anniversary of one of the most inspiring events in human history. An ancient people mostly dispersed from their homeland nearly 2,000 years before by foreign invaders reestablished their sovereignty and withstood an invasion by five foreign armies. Today, those same people are still valiantly facing enemies bent on the destruction of their sovereign state. Yet rather than producing a program about that modern day miracle, WBUR chose to produce the Here & Now episode "Millions of Palestinians across the world commemorate 'Al Nakba,'" an interview pandering to a descendant of those who tried to prevent that miracle and not just air his lies and distortions but reinforce them. Nowhere did the interviewer correct Beshara Doumani lies and distortions and point out, for example, the Jewish people are the indigenous people of the land the Roman conquerors renamed Syria Palaestina (living there for thousands of years before the first Arabs

Dear Ms. Graham: By the time your column, "Palestinian lives and Netanyahu's latest 'tragic accident' in Gaza," was published on Wednesday, May 29, it was well known that it was not the Israeli strike on two Hamas terrorists which had caused the tragic fire in the safe area more than a mile away. Even if you believe Israel should have known that Hamas was storing munitions where those two terrorists were and it was possible the munitions would get ignited even by the very targeted Israeli strike, using the least powerful bombs available, and those secondary explosions might send debris more than a mile away to the safe area that had been set up by Israel to protect civilians but where Hamas had also stored gasoline it had stolen and might ignite that gasoline causing a deadly fire, you should have acknowledged the tragedy would not have taken place were it not for Hamas storing munitions so close to the safe area and storing stolen gasoline in the safe area. Unfor