Rick Staggenborg wondered, in his March 23 letter ("What makes people support genocide?"), why people support ethnic cleansing. Perhaps because Israel’s war is neither ethnic cleansing nor genocide.
Israel doesn’t intend to destroy Gazans but Hamas, an organization, not a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Israel is defending its citizens, comprising Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze, from Hamas, which has stated its intention to destroy Israel.
Israel has gone above and beyond any other military in history, warning Gazan civilians to leave the areas where it intends to attack Hamas.
To call this unprecedented humanitarian effort ethnic cleansing is foolish, ignorant or mendacious.
Tammy Abu-Husein, in her letter “Lifting of blockade must be permanent” (March 23), says “a permanent ceasefire, lifting the blockade and rebuilding everything Israel destroyed are reasonable demands.” Hamas has rejected numerous ceasefire proposals. There’s no obligation to rebuild anything in a war the other party started.
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The blockade began because Hamas fired rockets into Israel’s civilian areas and used materials meant for homes and schools to build tunnels for kidnapping and holding hostages. Interestingly, Abu-Husein does not include Hamas surrendering unconditionally and releasing hostages in her “reasonable” but one-sided demands.
On the same day, June Forsyth Kenagy (“Posts examples of soldiers’ attitudes”) lamented unauthorized videos posted by soldiers. She is right that they’re repugnant. But surely not more repugnant than Hamas’ actions, not words, performed on Oct. 7, not by a few soldiers but as policy, with the full backing and authorization of Hamas leadership.
Rachel Peck
Corvallis