Letters

'Futile and dangerous'

With family in Israel, and friends in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt, I've observed the growing violence in the area with pain and concern. The escalating violence between Israel/Hamas and Israel/Hezbollah shows the fragility of the ongoing Israeli-Palestine conflict and its potential for a disastrous regional war.

If allowed to continue, more innocents in all the affected area will be victims.

As an American Jew who supports Israel, I believe international and U.S. intervention is critical to allow cooler heads to prevail, halt the escalation, provide opportunities for the affected parties to negotiate return of captured prisoners, and begin steps toward a negotiated settlement of the Israeli/Palestinian and Arab/Israeli conflict.

Continued military action is futile and dangerous. Only a just and comprehensive settlement that acknowledges the rights of all the peoples to safety and freedom, can assure security and peace for all.

Dolores Taller | Berkeley




Self-defense

Hezbollah terrorists, acting with impunity in southern Lebanon, killed eight Israeli soldiers and abducted two others this week. Israel now must take legitimate measures in its own self-defense.

Israel is obliged, as any other sovereign state, to protect its citizens and, absent any effective control by the Lebanese government in Beirut, will need to act to root out the terrorist infrastructure that threatens it from across the Lebanese frontier.

Hezbollah is no longer a renegade in Lebanon's south. It holds a ministerial portfolio, and in that sense is part and parcel of Lebanon's government.

Hezbollah has hundreds of long-range rockets with the capability to hit major Israeli population centers in Haifa and Hadera, not to mention thousands of short-range rockets that have already bombarded Israel's northern frontier for decades.

The regional terror threat is exacerbated by Hamas' policy of lobbing Qassam rockets at Israeli cities in the south.

On the same day that the IDF returned to the ruins of Jewish settlements in Gaza, after only a 10-month absence, it also returned, six years later, to southern Lebanon — a chilling reminder of how closely connected they are, and also perhaps how similar.

Steve Lipman | Foster City




'God bless Israel'

I am a Christian and consider Jews to be royalty. You are God's chosen people, and we are told that those who bless Israel will be blessed.

As an American I am hoping, and lobbying for, the United States to always support Israel no matter how hard the world makes it.

When my husband and I saw on Fox News what the Israelis did as a response to the kidnapping of their citizens, we cheered. We're not warmongers, but it is about time someone had the guts to adequately retaliate against jihad. The United States certainly doesn't.

May God continue to bless Israel and all Jews.

Anne E. Grimes | Roseville




Enemy states

As rockets fall on Israeli towns, Arab and some European press, incredibly, continue to blame Israel for the violence.

Completely unprovoked, and coordinated, Hamas and Hezbollah assaulted sovereign

Israeli territory and killed and kidnapped a number of soldiers while sending rockets that killed civilians deep inside Israeli towns.

In both instances, it is an elected party in the government that is behind the terror.

In other words, their actions are indeed acts of war by sovereign governments.

Israel has every right to target the terror-supporting infrastructure of those entities, as allowed under the rules of armed conflict. Until those groups are completely disarmed, and soldiers are returned, Israel has every right to view Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority as enemy states in the time of war.

Vadim Rotberg | San Francisco




'Obvious racism'

Is there a shift in the Jewish American community to a less defensive response regarding attacks on Israel?

What do you say when Israel is called a racist, apartheid, genocidal state?

Since World War II, the Muslims in the Middle East have eliminated the Baha'i and Zoroastrian religions. There are no Jews left except for 75 percent of Israel. The Christians have been harassed so that their number is in sharp decline. Bethlehem had a Christian majority for centuries and now is a small minority. Since Arafat's death, saying one thing to the West and the opposite to the Muslim masses has turned to open calls to destroy Israel.

Thus the Muslim Middle East is to become "ethnically cleansed" into the largest one-religion area. How will the pro-Arab left respond to such obvious racism? It's all Israel's fault.

Gerson Jacobs | Greenbrae




Fear for future

I am a Jew and I support Israel, but I believe there is no future for Israel or the Palestinians if they continue in this mode of violent reprisal. I fear for the future of Israel and see no future at all for the Palestinians if this violence continues.

Where is the rational response from countries of the world to this situation? Have they turned their backs or buried their heads?

Only a negotiated two-state solution will bring the promise of a future back to the Palestinians and Israelis.

Julia Humphreys | Daly City




Vouchers needed?

Your June 16 editorial rightfully points out the importance of our children getting a good education. It also points out the high caliber of some of our local private Jewish high schools.

On the other hand, your editorial points out how our private Jewish high schools and day schools are under-funded and unaffordable for many.

Your solution is a call for more Jewish community funding. A better solution is school vouchers. After all, parents sending children to private schools are already paying twice for their children's schooling — once by paying private school tuition and secondly by paying local public school taxes.

Edward Tamler | San Mateo




No violence

I read Rabbi Janet Marder's recent apologia for Leviticus' bloody contents and feel compelled to comment. I am an atheist with no blood lust. I cringe at all the things she cringes at, and am shocked to think that she really believes that Jews need to read this junk in order to make them compassionate.

What a shame that anyone — Christian, Jew, or Muslim — would need to be shocked with this kind of graphically violent nonsense in order to develop a sense of morality. I do not believe in killing, cruelty, torture or violence any more than Marder does, but I do not need a Pentateuch to teach me that.

Gil Gaudia | Eugene, Ore.