United States helping Israel break international law
It is imperative that American citizens realize the astronomical $3 billion tax dollars given to Israel —not a needy country —are being used to buy back our armaments, then used to illegally occupy and massacre Palestinians. [“Standing up for Gaza’s people,” Opinion, March 31.]
The United States is complicit in breaking international; aw and it is paramount that the world put pressure on the governments who are abetting this situation, the United States being the worst.
— Kit Kettredge, Quilcene
Palestinians paying the price
We are appalled by the lack of debate within the U.S. Congress regarding its extreme ongoing financial, military, diplomatic and media support of the more than 40-year oppressive occupation by the Israeli armed forces within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This issue is the most contentious issue of our time and it deserves our attention.
The Palestinians were not responsible for the Holocaust, but they are paying for it with their lives and their land.
Palestinians face death, terror and violations of human rights on a daily basis. The destruction of their homes and farmland, the confiscation of their land and water, their imprisonment in ghettos, the wanton shooting of Palestinians by the Israeli forces, the imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians —many of them women and children —and the daily humiliations endured by the Palestinian people cry out for justice.
There is a corollary in the history of the Palestinian struggle for justice with that of the Native Americans: enforced displacement, marginalization, confiscation of resources and demonization.
— Barbara & J. Glenn Evans, Seattle
Why Israel should be punished
Abigail Sloan’s letter in The Times asks, “Why punish Israel?” [Opinion, April 1].
We punished Germany when it invaded Poland. The Israelis have no better claim to Palestinian land than Germany had for Polish land.
The argument that Israel was there 2,000 years ago is irrelevant. Ancestors of the Arabs were there before them and after them. All other arguments of the Israelis are equally bogus. The Israelis are the invaders.
She asks, “What about attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran?” I will ask: What about Israel’s pre-emptive strikes against Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza?
Like the Poles did, Hamas and Hezbollah justifiably want their country back. Israel is the invader.
Finally, she asks why Obama is publicly humiliating “our most reliable Middle Eastern Ally.” Reliable? Ally in what cause?
I find it appalling that anyone thinks Israel is our ally when it is really a millstone around our neck. U.S. aid to Israel after its invasion of Palestine and continuing tyranny over the quarter it didn’t steal is a vile stain on the United States’ integrity and reputation for justice.
Support of Israel is souring most of the Muslim world against us.
— Spencer Higley, Edmonds