Letters to the Editor: How should Hamas' attack on Israel be covered by the media?
To the editor: How tone deaf can the Los Angeles Times be? ("Israel and Hamas continue to battle, with at least 1,100 dead and warnings of a long war," Oct. 8)
Early in the morning of the Jewish Sabbath, which coincided with a Jewish holiday, Hamas infiltrates multiple Israeli towns, kibbutzim, military installations, a police station and a dance festival full of young people in the desert.
Hamas executes at least 260 young people at the dance festival, according to an Israeli rescue agency. It takes hostages, kills some 800 people in total (mostly civilians) and wounds thousands of Jewish Israelis.
For its visual representation of this, the L.A. Times chooses a front-page picture of a Hamas police officer carrying a wounded girl to a hospital? Really?
A front-page picture is an important piece of news. This is not balanced reporting of this war.
Mona Deutsch Miller, Los Angeles
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To the editor: I opened the paper on Monday to see a Hamas "police officer" carrying a wounded child on the front page.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. It attacked Israel. It has taken children, women, teenagers and even reportedly a Holocaust survivor as hostages.
Where is your sense of justice? You should be ashamed, and you should apologize to the Jewish community. I am ready to cancel my subscription of decades.
Judith Braun, Woodland Hills
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To the editor: About 25,000 people killed — adjusted for population, that's the scale of death in Israel (population 9.6 million) if the attack happened in the U.S. (population 330 million).
If the Mexicans or Canadians killed 25,000 Americans in a single attack, forget "proportionality." Americans would want revenge. Carpet-bombing, invasion, occupation — any and all would be on the table.
Don’t expect Israelis to behave any differently. And Hamas — not Israel, not the Israeli Defense Forces, not the Israeli Air Force — is responsible.
We should all remember that truth as news of atrocities begins rolling in.
Max Plithides, Irvine
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To the editor: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's prayers have been answered. His shaky hold on his government has been strengthened and his country can now unite with a single purpose: defeat Hamas.
As dramatic as it appears, it is but a short-term fix for a floundering prime minister.
It is heresy, of course, to accuse Israel of anything but the highest moral and political intentions, but its treatment of the Palestinians has been ferociously constant and most uncivil since 1949.
It has condemned and acquired Palestinians' land by changing laws, restricting travel, continuously forcing Palestinians to pass through checkpoints even in their own land and providing their IDs at a moment's notice.
Now, Israel is refusing to consider a two-state compromise. Somehow, all this sounds familiar to anyone past the age of 75 — or, in my case, 91.
Carleton Cronin, West Hollywood
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To the editor: I see three incontestable truths from this weekend’s carnage.
First, Hamas is an off-the-rails terrorist organization deserving universal condemnation if not annihilation.
Second, the current Israeli government’s obsession with decapitating its supreme court and extending illegal settlements contributed to the security failing that permitted Hamas' incursion.
Finally, those on both sides who prefer apocalypse to any sort of compromise just scored a huge victory.
Claude Goldenberg, Seal Beach
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To the editor: I am wondering what has prevented Israel from understanding that if you keep your foot on the neck of a person for more than 70 years, they will use all means to remove the boot.
The Palestinians have been militarily occupied since 1948 and have the right to resist under international law. Israel has ignored countless United Nations resolutions which have condemned the occupation.
The Israeli government's outrage over the attack could have been avoided by simply allowing the Palestinians to live like human beings.
Joseph Tillotson, Redondo Beach
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
