Letters to the Editor: Jews are indigenous to Israel. They’re defending their homeland, not ‘colonizing’ it

To the editor: Rashid Khalidi’s op-ed article, “How the U.S. has fueled Israel’s decades-long war on Palestinians,” rewrites history.

His characterization of the conflict as a “colonial” war belittles the Jewish people’s ancestral ties to Israel and indigenous status there. He also omits the expulsion of more than 850,000 Jews from Arab lands and Iran after Israel’s establishment in 1948.

He seemingly justifies the 1948, 1967 and 1973 wars aimed at destroying Israel, and ignores Israel’s peace proposals for Palestinian statehood, which were violently rejected.

Finally, he ignores Hamas’ barbarity. On Oct. 7, it burned children and slaughtered hundreds of young people at a music festival. Hamas kidnapped, raped, mutilated and massacred Israelis to provoke a war, then cynically used Gaza’s civilians as human shields, maximizing Palestinian casualties.

As Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said, Hamas is “proud to sacrifice martyrs” to annihilate Israel.

America is right to support Israel.

Stephen A. Silver, San Francisco

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To the editor: Khalidi’s piece is most notable for its contradictions and omissions.

He acknowledges the “unquestionable connection of Judaism and the Jewish people” to Israel. But he also calls Israeli Jews colonial settlers.

Colonists have no previous connection to the land they’ve settled. But the Jewish connection to Israel, as Khalidi writes, is unquestionable.

Indeed, Jews are indigenous to Israel. Some never left their Israeli homes, while others have forever been returning home to Israel from their forced exile in foreign lands.

No amount of revisionism can alter the literary, historical and archaeological facts establishing Israel as the Jewish ancestral home.

Rosette Liberman, Pittsford, N.Y.

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To the editor: I was raised to respect and honor Israel. In recent years the policies of the Israeli government, under the likes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have forced me to completely change my thinking.

I agree completely with Khalidi.

I am 80 years old. So, members of the 18-34 age group are not alone in their disapproval of President Biden’s handling of the war on Gaza, not to mention the slow ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

Noel Park, Rancho Palos Verdes

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To the editor: Without debating here the rights and wrongs of each side to the conflict, what is certain is that blame for the failure to resolve it lies largely with those like Khalidi who have used their status and influence over many years to perpetuate the Palestinian delusion that Israel can be overthrown and demolished by the use of force.

Khalidi justifies that approach ideologically on the grounds that Israel is a colonial power, not a sovereign state.

How many more wars will be required before each side to the conflict decides that a different approach is required? On the Palestinian side, that would begin by rejecting Khalidi’s incitement to embrace the false narrative that Israel is a colonial power.

Jonathan Goldberg, Los Angeles