Matters Of Fact

Dear Editor: Regarding "With shaky cease-fire, Arab leaders look to Gaza’s future" (Boston Globe, March 4, 2025), everyone needs to realize that no plan for Gaza's future will succeed and any investment in rebuilding Gaza will be totally wasted unless Hamas is first eliminated. Sincerely, Alan Stein Submitted to the Boston Globe, March 4, 2025

To the editor: I am distressed by what was revealed by Bernie Sanders' op-ed, "No more US complicity with Netanyahu's war machine in Gaza." It revealed that a long-time United States Senator could be incredibly ignorant. Putting aside the fact that Israel currently has but one brigade in Gaza, which hardly comprises a "war machine," it's not Netanyahu's war and it's not against the Palestinian Arab people. The Israeli army has been doing what a united Israeli public demands, knowing that not succeeding in what President Biden himself acknowledged must be done - destroying Hamas - would be a disaster for Israel. An not just for Israel. If Israel doesn't succeed in destroying Hamas, it will be a disaster for America and for the entire democratic world, a disaster which might be impossible to overcome. Israel is fighting a just and necessary war against evil and, contrary to the misinformation spread by Sanders, it is fighting it in a highly mor...

To the editor: It's just over six months since Hamas, along with other terror groups and thousands of ordinary Gaza civilians, perpetrated the worst slaughter of Jews since the Shoah. Polls in November showed 98% of the Arabs in the Palestinian Authority and Gaza felt more proud of their Palestinian identity thanks to that atrocity. Israel had no alternative but to defend its citizens to prevent Hamas from carrying out its promise to repeat that slaughter "again and again." Despite the vile nature of its enemy, Israel has done more than any other army in history to prevent unnecessary harm to the civilians in Gaza, few of whom are actually innocent. My first thought, reading the headline "I'm Jewish, and I've covered wars. I know war crimes when I see them" of Peter Maass' April 9 commentary was that it's pretty clear he's hallucinating. This was confirmed "again and again" by the content of his misguided article, but he really went...

To the editor: In the April 4 article "Keeping heat on Biden over Gaza," Senator Elizabeth Warren is quoted as saying "This is not about politics. This is about doing what's right." Unfortunately, she has things backwards. That's how it should be, but lately it's been all about politics and not about doing what's right. President Biden has to stop trying to get the votes of the pathological Israel-haters. He needs to stop looking for excuses to criticize Israel. He needs to help put an end to the tragedy in Gaza by standing solidly with Israel as it works to effectively eliminate Hamas and the other terror groups which have been busy strengthening themselves, repressing the people and continually attacking Israelis ever since Israel completely left Gaza in 2005. Instead of relentlessly criticizing Israel, he should be recognizing our democratic friend has done more than any other country in history to minimize civilian casualties and its efforts have...

Dear Newsweek: Angela McArdle is correct that "War is more offensive than protesters" (April 18, 2024), but is wrong about just about everything else she writes. As is typical of apologists for Palestinian Arabs, she repeatedly falsely accuses Israel of doing what the Palestinian Arabs are attempting,  including genocide, which is explicitly called for in the Hamas charter. I might also point out that Israel's "violent origin story" began millennia before the United States came on the scene. She might try attending a Passover seder this week and learning Israel's origin story. She closes with another rare accurate observation: "The fog of war tends to obscure everything around an issue, including the history of these conflicts." I suspect the fog of war has nothing to do with her profound lack of understanding of the conflict the Arabs in the Land of Israel started long before they adopted the identity of Palestinian. Sincerely, Alan Stein

 The March 17 episode of "Up First" was truly heart-wrenching, all the more because it was made so personal. There is one obvious question: why did you not similarly personalize the story of any of the people who are actually suffering the most in Gaza, far more than either Shema Ahmed or Wafa Abouzadeh and Aboud Okal? One answer is obvious: Nobody other than Gaza terrorists has any access to them; indeed, for those who are not known to have been murdered yet, nobody other than those terrorists know whether they're still even alive. Yet no mention was even made of the suffering of the hostages, all of whom are suffering from inhumane treatment and far worse conditions than those you so sympathetically portrayed. There is also have another trait they have that those you highlighted almost certainly don't share: they are all innocent. Given that 98% of the Arabs polled in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority after the October 7 Massacre said they were more proud of being ...

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...

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 ...