Many conflicting realities call Gaza home

Re “To Obey Orders or Obey God,”

Aug. 8

As the deadline of the disengagement from Gaza nears, Jews like myself are cringing at the coverage appearing in the American media, which revels in the sensational aspects of Jews fighting Jews and ignores the subtler realities.

The settlers fighting the disengagement do not represent the majority of Israelis; they don’t even represent all religious Israelis. Many Jews, including many observant ones, do not share the view that God has commanded Jews to reside in Gaza. Seldom does our media point out that Israel is the only democracy in the entire Middle East. One of its pillars is mandatory military service, rather than a military entirely culled from the ranks of the underprivileged.

JENNY SKOBLE

Los Angeles

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Laila Al-Marayati calls Gaza a prison (Opinion, Aug. 7), but I have little sympathy for her incontinences of travel. Israel is hostage to terror and that too imprisons and inconveniences people. I know this in very personal terms.

Last year, my daughter was spending her junior year abroad at Bir Sheba University when a terror attack killed 16 innocents and injured many more, both Jews and Muslims, about five blocks from where she lived. Luckily, she was not physically affected, but it took several panicked hours of phone calls before I found that out. My daughter is back in Israel now, and if it takes inconveniencing many innocent Arabs to protect equally innocent Israelis, so be it.

When Arabs like Al-Marayati see beyond petty inconveniences and address the larger issues of their cause, namely terror, then perhaps we can both work toward ending one another’s imprisonment.

EMIL SAFIER

Los Angeles

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Israel expands illegal settlements on Palestinian lands with unquestioning support from the U.S.

Israel murders, with impunity, any Palestinian who opposes it. The U.S. says nothing, except that the Palestinians must take more responsibility in stopping violence. Israel does to the Palestinians what the white government did to the blacks in South Africa during apartheid. And we punish Israel by sending them billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art military hardware, mostly to use on the Palestinians, and billions more in aid that will never have to be repaid. Gaza is not a prison, it’s a death camp.

JIM DOODY

Costa Mesa