Nicholas Kristof's opinion piece "Answering my critics about the war in Gaza"

Submitted to The New York Times August 16, 2025

Dear Editor:

I find Nicholas Kristof's answers to his critics about his unfair criticisms about Israel's defensive war necessitated by Hamas' barbaric October 7 slaughter unconvincing.

He fails to acknowledge that all the suffering in Gaza is part of Hamas' cruel strategy and that Israel is far more interested in the welfare of whatever innocent civilians live in Gaza than is Hamas, which actually has no interest in their welfare, and when Hamas uses homes, schools, mosques, hospitals and United Nations facilities as bases, it's impossible for Israel to defend its own people without massive destruction of what should be civilian areas.

Also, like every critic of Israel I've read, he utterly fails to make a single constructive suggestion. I'm still waiting to hear a critic propose something that hasn't already been tried and failed or pretty obviously would actually lead to more death and destruction in the long run and generally also in the short run, not to mention the deaths of all of the few hostages who haven't yet been murdered by Hamas.

Sincerely,

Alan Stein

Netanya, Israel and Natick, Massachusetts 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finally, a new idea

Sent to the Boston Globe February 6: Dear Editor: I've read a lot of criticism of the latest American proposal for Gaza, but I have yet to read about any of the critics proposing anything that isn't essentially a rehash of what's been tried and failed disastrously time after time. Isn't it time to try something that might have a chance of doing something other than perpetuating the bloody disaster that the Palestinian Arabs have made out of Gaza? Sincerely, Alan Stein
Read more

Kenneth Roth Completely Off Base

Sent to the Boston Globe December 27, 2024 Dear Editor: Kenneth Roth, whose stewardship of the once admirable NGO Human Rights Watch, compelled Robert Bernstein to renounce the organization he founded because of Roth's fanatical demonization of Israel, is totally off base with his op-ed "Harvard's new approach to antisemitism is dangerous." Contrary to Roth's assertion, the IHRA definition of antisemitism has absolutely nothing to do with inhibiting free expression. It merely provides the gold standard for understanding what constitutes antisemitism. It does no more to inhibit free expression than observing that the hateful use of the N-word is racist. Indeed, the fact that a hateful screed like Roth's could be a featured op-ed in a respected newspaper like the Boston Globe proves the falsity of his arguments. Sincerely, Alan Stein
Read more

Subdued Elation

Sent to the Boston Globe January 20, 2025 Dear Editor: My elation over the release of Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steibrecher is tempered by the realization that there are still 81 hostages being brutalized by Hamas in their terror tunnels, that the 90 terrorists released by Israel will almost certainly murder many more innocent people and the ceasefire will be used by Hamas to rearm, reorganize and prepare to perpetrate many more bloody atrocities. Sincerely, Alan Stein
Read more