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To the editor:
A recent missive to The Chief scores points for imagination and creativity but fails dismally in presenting an objective and accurate reporting on the Gaza war (“Unions and Gaza,” Letters, The Chief, Sept. 5). This entire war began as an unprovoked attack by Hamas terrorists almost two years ago on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli civilians were brutally murdered, raped and kidnapped. Hostages have been starved, sexually assaulted and beaten while housed like animals in tunnels. Hamas terrorists embedded themselves in schools and hospitals, endangering Gazans while expecting no retaliation from Israel.
Deaths in these Hamas controlled buildings are the responsibility of Hamas. As to pro-Gaza signs on clinicians’ desks in hospitals, they and other politicized signs simply do not belong there. Cancer patients are entitled to care without being in a hostile environment. This would be true of signs of support for any cause beyond support for the U.S.
Israel left Gaza in 2005. There was absolutely no basis for the attack that murdered 1,200 Israelis, many at a music festival. Israel left Gaza in 2005. The letter writer is entitled to his own biases but not to his own set of facts.
Referring to genocide is ludicrous. The population of Gaza has increased by a million people in the past decade while Israel provides electrical power and food deliveries to Gazans. Hopefully, The Chief’s readership sees beyond the writer’s rhetoric.
Norman Rosenfeld
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fcannisi
Just today, the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry issued a 72-page report on Israel's war in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. The report cites 4 actions that meet the legal definition of genocide under the Genocide Convention of 1948 of which the Commission found Israel to be guilty (listed on page 71):
"The Commission concludes on reasonable grounds that the Israeli
authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to
commit the following actus reus of genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip, namely (i) killing members of the group; (ii) causing serious bodily or
mental harm to members of the group; (iii) deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or
in part; and (iv) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group."
The charge of genocide against Israel is not ludicrous, and it is not a Chief letter writer's opinion or rhetoric. It is an opinion shared by nearly all 193 U.N. member nations, save the U.S. and Israel. No one is entitled to their own set of facts.
Tuesday, September 16, 2025 Report this