A Bloody Battle

The deadly clashes in Gaza drew impassioned responses from readers on both sides of the issue. Arguing that Hamas is not solely at fault, one said, "Gaza has been made a prison by the Israelis." Another defended Israel's action, saying, "There is no moral equivalent between terrorism and self-defense."

Is Peace in the Middle East Possible?
In the Jan. 12 issue, both Daniel Klaidman ("A Plan of Attack for Peace") and Aaron David Miller ("If Obama Is Serious") suggest that a Palestinian-Israeli peace can be achieved if Barack Obama pressures Israel to make concessions, and if he takes an active role in negotiating a Palestinian-Israeli agreement. It is futile, however, to continue negotiations with moderate Palestinians while ignoring the real obstacle to peace: militant Islam. Militant Islam is a multimillion-dollar industry that receives funds not only from Iran and Syria, but also from charitable donations to prominent Islamic organizations in the United States and Europe. Additionally, Saudi Arabia provides $12 million a year to Hamas, as well as millions to other organizations and schools that advocate a militant Islamic ideology. If Obama wants to achieve peace in the Middle East, he must stop the flow of funds to Hamas and other militant Islamic organizations. Saudi Arabia is key to this initiative. If the United States can persuade the Saudis to support a Palestinian-Israeli agreement, to help improve the economic plight of the Palestinians and to stop funding radical, militant Islam, then we may actually see peace in the Middle East.
Galit Lev-Harir
Ballwin, Missouri

It is "biased" reporting when the pictures selected are of an uncovered dead Palestinian infant alongside a photo of a covered casket of an Israeli. Who is putting these children in harm's way? We can all agree that "war is hell" and that innocent lives lost are never acceptable. But you play right into the sympathies of terrorist organizations such as Hamas when you use the images of dead infants to show only one side of the conflict.
Robert Dempsey
Chapel Hill, Tennessee

As I looked at the two-page photo spread of mourners around an Israeli coffin, I strangely felt no sorrow. I am normally cursed with hyperactive empathy and shed tears easily at such images. Perhaps my empathy was squelched by the fact that an accurate representation of the Gaza situation would have required a photo of a dead Palestinian on every single page of the magazine.
Kristi Hart
Potosi, Wisconsin

The Gaza Strip has one of the highest population densities in the world. So how can Hamas terrorists use this area as a base to fire rockets at Israel, then complain about their own casualties? When Israel finally retaliates, after eight years of rockets, the cowardly terrorists hide, live and operate within their own population. Is it any wonder that many are killed? The children in Gaza live in a war zone, courtesy of Hamas. So do the kids in southern Israel, also thanks to Hamas. The difference: since the war began, Israel has shut all the schools in the south, which is fortunate, since rockets, fired randomly, destroyed three schools and a kindergarten. In Gaza, kids are used as human shields.
Amos Fabian
Ramat Gan, Israel

More than 1.5 million children from across Europe were murdered under the Nazi regime during World War II. Holocaust Memorial Day, in the U.K. on Jan. 27, is to commemorate these children and all who lost their lives during the Holocaust. In Gaza, over the last weeks, more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed, reportedly a third of them children. We must remember these children also, their lives brutally ended in a senseless battle that is now 60 years old. Holocaust Memorial Day was intended to ensure that the world never forgets and will never again witness such atrocities. However, this month we have witnessed unarmed civilian men, women and children being deliberately killed without mercy. Holocaust Memorial Day has failed in its objectives. We still kill one another and we still watch as others kill—and we remain silent.
Michael Halpern
Westbourne, United Kingdom

The most critical impediment to long-term peace—the elephant in the room—is the Muslim educational system that inculcates hatred in children at an early age, in which Jews (and Christians) are castigated as pigs, monkeys and worse. As long as the next generation is brought up in ignorance and imbued with hatred for non-Muslims, there will never be peace. As long as the delusional West assumes that some measure of honest negotiation can exist in a so-called peace process with those in Hamas and others whose charter and modus operandi call for Israel's destruction, nothing meaningful will happen.
A. Fine
San Francisco, California