Clashing Views on Israel and Gaza

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/opinion/israel-gaza.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Israelis Kill Dozens in Gaza” (front page, May 15):

Yes, Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel; and yes, a country is within its rights to prevent its borders from being breached; and yes, the possibility of Palestinians regaining homes they fled or were forced from in what is now Israel is a pipe dream.

Nevertheless, for a democratic country to resort to using live ammunition to deter protesters bespeaks a failed and inhumane policy.

Given the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the hopelessness there, where is the demand from Israel that its wealthy neighbors in Saudi Arabia, along with the gulf states, join together in a Marshall Plan as part of a regional nonaggression pact, including the disarmament of Gaza?

Without a quick solution, more Gazans will be killed in their impossible quest, and Israelis will continue to explain that they had no other choice but to defend Israel’s borders.

ARTHUR SALZ KEW GARDENS, QUEENS

To the Editor:

Gandhi at the head of the Salt March and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the helm of the Selma bridge crossing exemplify peaceful civil disobedience and leadership.

Hamas clerics and politicians at the rear dispatching women and teenagers to the Israeli border to precipitate an armed conflict personifies cowardice and selfishness.

DANIEL WOLF, TEANECK, N.J.

To the Editor:

Re “Mr. Trump’s Failure in Jerusalem” (editorial, May 15):

Abetted by Donald Trump, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing severe damage to Israel’s moral standing and future. President Trump’s decision to move our embassy to Jerusalem is impetuous and harebrained, pandering to the worst extremists in the United States as well as in Israel.

But someone in the Arab world needs to help the Palestinians see how much better their lives would be if (after 70 years) they would accept Israel’s existence, evict Hamas from their midst and turn Gaza into a world-class seaside travel destination.

MACKENZIE ALLEN, SANTA FE, N.M.

To the Editor:

Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into civilian areas in Israel over the years. Millions of international aid dollars for Gaza development have been diverted to build terror attack tunnels into Israel, for the kidnapping and murder of Israeli civilians.

Hamas now seeks to flood Israel with armed terrorists intent on mass murder while using unarmed Gaza civilians as human shields. Hamas hopes to force the Israel Defense Forces to respond with lethal force so the Hamas strategy of delegitimizing Israel through international vilification will be advanced.

Israel is taking all feasible precautions to minimize civilian losses. But Hamas intentionally seeks to maximize human losses and puts Gaza civilians in harm’s way.

JULIA LUTCH, DAVIS, CALIF.

To the Editor:

Ask yourself: How would we respond if, hypothetically, thousands of Mexicans violently tried to storm the border and reclaim their historical homelands in Texas? And what did we do when the Soviet Union tried to arm Cuba?

Sanctimony is so easy when you have no skin in the game.

WILLIAM M. GORDONUPPER MONTCLAIR, N.J.

To the Editor:

Regarding Israel’s attacks at the Gaza border: I am ashamed as an American and ashamed as a Jew.

BARBARA COHEN. NEW YORK