Matters Of Fact

Sent November 15, 2024 to the MetroWest Daily News Dear Editor: The article "Group says Israel committed war crimes" (November 15) omits the fact that the group is fanatically hostile to Israel and its founder long ago blasted Human Rights Watch for betraying its principles and its mission. The fact is that, despite the nature of the terrorist enemies against which Israel is currently fighting an existential war on seven fronts, has arguably gone beyond what any other state has in its compliance with international law. I do not know of any other country that has transferred massive amounts of humanitarian assistance to its enemy during a war that enemy started. Israel has continued to do that even though Hamas has stolen most of the aid and many Israelis have paid with their lives. Israel has also done something no other army has ever done: tell its enemy where it's going to attack, thus enabling civilians to get out of harms way. I just today saw a video of a crowd in Be...

Sent to the Hartford Courant November 13, 2024 Dear Editor: Reading the article about our government pulling back on its threat to cut off arms shipments to Israel in the middle of its fight for its existence, while continuing to pressure Israel to transfer even more aid to Gaza, I can't help but think of how unusual it is for a country at war to be sending aid to its enemy, particularly when its enemy started the war. Perhaps my memory is faulty, but I cannot think of a single instance of any country other than Israel ever doing that. Curiously omitted from the article is the known fact that most of the aid has been stolen by Hamas, so the aid is strengthening that terror group, prolonging the war, costing innocent lives and increasing the suffering of whatever innocent civilians are actually living in Gaza. Sincerely, Alan Stein

Sent to the MetroWest Daily News on October 30, 2024.  Dear Editor: The headline "Israeli strike kills dozens in north Gaza" (October 30, 2024) created a completely false impression by omitting two crucial words; it should have read "Israeli strike kills dozens of terrorists in north Gaza." Sincerely, Alan Stein

Sent to the Hartford Courant on October 29, 2024.   Dear Editor: I have a three word reaction to Israel's new law banning UNRWA: it's about time. It's not just that, as has been extensively documented for years, that UNRWA has allowed its facilities to be used by Hamas and has employed thousands of terrorists, including many involved in Hamas' barbaric October 7 massacre. It's also that UNRWA, which was supposed to help the Arab refugees of the war they started in 1948, has perpetuated the misery of generations for more than three-quarters of a century. The dismantling of UNRWA is a necessary, albeit not sufficient, prerequisite for peace and a better life for all involved. Sincerely, Alan Stein

Sent to the Boston Globe on October 18, 2024 Dear Editor: With the blessed elimination of the terrorist the Palestinian Arabs themselves years ago dubbed "The Butcher of Khan Younis," there have been loud voices proclaiming this is the opportunity to end the war Yahya Sinwar started last October 7. It would be a mistake to repeat the mistakes of the past, since how a war ends is more important than when it ends. Each of the wars Hamas started in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2021 ended in a way that guaranteed it would be followed by another, even more deadly and destructive war. Hamas was allowed to survive and rearm, with massive amounts of "humanitarian aid" and materials meant to rebuild the civilian infrastructure in Gaza stolen by Hamas and used to build its enormous terror tunnel system. With the complicity of UNRWA and other international organizations, almost every school, hospital and mosque was turned into a Hamas base or command center. This made it impossi...

Sent to the Boston Globe on October 9, 2024. Dear Editor: Missing from all the observations and comments on the anniversary of Hamas' barbaric pogrom last October 7 are the following basic facts: • There is a war between good and evil, with Israel fighting on the front line for the survival of Western civilization. • Israel wants to live in peace and has no interest in harming the innocent people in Gaza, Lebanon or Iran. Tragically, Iran and its terror proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, are focused on destroying Israel and have no interest in the welfare of their own people. • Related to that, if Iran and its terror proxies would lay down their arms, there would be peace and prosperity for all, while if Israel put down its arms there would be genocide and the end of Israel. For the good of all, America and the rest of the Western democracies need to stand solidly with Israel. The pressure on Israel to "de-escalate" in the face of constant attacks has al...

Sent to The Guardian on October 9, 2024 Dear Editor: Reading Naomi Klein's perversely bizarre essay, "How Israel has made trauma a weapon of war," reminds me of the way, decades ago, a friend opened my eyes to the reason behind the French government's behavior with is observation that "France will never forgive the United States for saving it in World War II." In a similar vein, it's clear that many Europeans resent Israel because it reminds them of Europe's effective complicity in the Holocaust. Rather than exploiting the atrocities committed by Hamas - along with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah (yes, the same Fatah led by the supposedly "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas), other terror groups and thousands of "ordinary Gaza civilians," with financial support training provided by Iran and Qatar, Israel was reluctant to distribute graphic video evidence of the slaughter and heavily censored the worst atrocities. The destruction in both Gaz...

Sent to the MetroWest Daily News on October 9, 2024 Dear Editor: The article "I'm not going to give up on this country" (MWDN, October 9) begins "Mohammad Enayah, an automotive engineer living in the Detroit suburbs, said he has lost nearly 100 relatives and friends in Gaza over the last year." Given that Hamas has privately admitted that 80% of those killed in Gaza have been either Hamas terrorists or members of their families, one obvious and interesting inference is that dozens of Enayah's relatives and friends were almost certainly Hamas terrorists, making his assertion "this is a group of helpless, defenseless civilians being slaughtered in front of everybody's eyes" blatantly false. Sincerely, Alan Stein

Sent to the Buffalo News on October 6, 2024 Dear Editor: America and the entire world have been in turmoil, but there are some things you can still depend on. One is that Israel-haters will make horrible accusations against Israel and, when they do, you can be almost certain of two things: The accusations are baseless but would be true if those accusations were made against the Palestinian Arabs. Thus it is not surprising that, as reported in the article "One year later: Jews and Muslims struggle with the aftermath of Oct. 7," Dr. Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York, falsely accused Israel of committing genocide. The tiny democratic state, which has been expediting the transfer of immense amounts of food, medicine and other humanitarian assistance to the people in Gaza, even though most of it has been stolen by Hamas, is accused of committing genocide. The tiny democratic state, which has gone to greater lengths to avoid civilian ca...

Sent to The Day (New London, Connecticut) on September 28, 2024. Dear Editor: Although the headline reads "Israel lowers hope for halt to fighting," the reality is the opposite. For eighteen years, the United Nations and UNIFIL were afraid to enforce Security Council Resolution 1701 and stood by as Hezbollah turned southern Lebanon - and much of the rest of Lebanon - into a massive terror base with an estimated 150,000 missiles financed and supplied by Iran and aimed at Israeli cities and towns. Since October 8, all the calls for de-escalation by our State Department have had the opposite effect, as Hezbollah launched thousands of missiles, RPGs, anti-tank missiles and other attacks on Israel, depopulating Israel's north and destroying town after town. Finally, the Israeli government realized it had to take matters into its own hands and fight back, starting with its incredibly brilliant beeper and walkie-talkie caper which exclusively exploded devices handed out by Hezbo...

Sent to the Boston Globe September 24, 2024 Dear Editor: Boston Globe readers were misled by the omission of three key words from the lead headline in the September 24 issue. Instead of "Israeli strikes pummel Lebanon; hundreds die," the headline should have read "Israeli strikes pummel Lebanon; hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists die." Sincerely, Alan Stein

Sent to the Washington Post September 20, 2024. Nasrallah no longer has a sense of humor, having been sent to his permanent resting place where the sun doesn't shine. Dear Editor: I had to laugh reading the September 20 article "Hezbollah chief calls pager, radio attacks an 'act of war' by Israel." Hassan Nasrallah's terror army launched a war against Israel on October 8 and has fired well over 10,000 rockets, missiles, RPGs and drones at Israel since, depopulating  and destroying Metulla and other cities, towns, kibbutzim and moshavim in northern Israel. Given his chutzpah and mendacity, I do have a suggestion for his next position after leaving Hezbollah. In the aftermath of the latest United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the ethnic cleansing of the entire Jewish population from the heart of the Jewish homeland, including the Jewish Quarter of Israel's capital, he would appear to be the perfect candidate to succeed António Guterres as S...