Letters to the Editor: What the anti-colonialists get totally wrong about Israel

To the editor: LZ Granderson is correct that many people who support the Palestinians conceptualize the Israel-Palestine conflict as an anti-colonialist struggle. The problem they face is that their opponent, Israel, does not think or behave like anyone’s colonial power.

You can use violence to send a colonial power like England packing. Israeli Jews, on the other hand, see themselves as having nowhere else to go. They have returned to their homeland following centuries of exile and brutalization.

When they are attacked, they dig in their heels and fight to the bitter end.

I have said for years (and after Oct. 7, it may be too late) that if the Palestinians truly want the freedom they deserve, they need to better understand their opponent and build a resistance that does not include the slaughter of Israelis.

Cathy Engel-Marder, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The national borders of the modern Middle East were established after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire following World War I. Some reflected ancient kingdoms, some not.

Israel was not created in 1948. It was created by the ancient Israelites in the first millennium BC and restored by a 1947 United Nations resolution.

If you were to travel back 3,000 years, you’d find that the indigenous people of the area were the Jews, and they practiced Judaism and spoke ancient Hebrew.

The name Palestine was given to the Roman province of Judaea in the 2nd century in an effort to separate it from its Jewish roots after numerous rebellions against Roman rule.

The narrative that the borders of the modern countries of the Middle East were determined by the colonial powers is true, but it’s true for all the countries. The critics of colonialism focus only on Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, and a state with among the longest histories in the region.

Joel Jaffe, Beverly Hills