Letters to the Editor: Urban warfare changes people. What will this mean for Israeli soldiers?
To the editor: I have friends who are Palestinian. I have Israeli friends. The cost of this war for residents of the Gaza Strip is extremely high. The price that the Israelis are paying is also exorbitant, although they may not realize yet how much this fight will cost them. (“Netanyahu says Gaza war on Hamas will go on for ‘many more months,’ thanks U.S. for new weapons sales,” Dec. 30)
My oldest son fought in Iraq as a member of the U.S. Army. There, he participated in urban warfare, kicking in doors and clearing out buildings. He killed at least one man up close and personal. My son came back changed, and not in a good way.
Israeli soldiers are doing exactly the kind of bloody work my son did in Iraq. They will come home after the war damaged in mind and spirit, if not physically injured.
Israel may win this war, but in many ways, it will be a pyrrhic victory. They might very well have an entire generation of young people return maimed in some way. I have seen how that can happen.
Francis Pauc, Oak Creek, Wis.
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To the editor: To those who question or deny the right of Israel to exist, I ask, had there been an Israel at the time of the Nazi regime, would the Holocaust have happened?
Early in the Nazi period, Jews attempted to leave Germany, but many were turned away from other countries and sent back to die in extermination camps. A state of Israel would have given them a haven.
Allied bombers were never ordered to strike extermination camps. An Israeli air force would have made them priority targets.
The existence of a strong Jewish state makes another Holocaust far less likely. The response to the mini-Holocaust perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7 demonstrates that because there is an Israel, Jews can no longer be slaughtered with impunity.
Morris Schorr, Woodland Hills
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To the editor: How ironic it would be if Israel, a nation established in the wake of the Holocaust, should now be the perpetrator of another genocide.
My grandparents, who died in the concentration camps in Poland, would have been very happy to see the formation of a Jewish state. But that feat was accomplished at the expense of the land and freedom of another people, the Palestinians. This blind spot on the part of the powers that be at the time ultimately brought about Hamas.
I don’t believe there is anything in Jewish beliefs that advises keeping one’s knee to the neck of one’s downed enemy and cutting off his breath. I have always supported Israel’s right to exist — how could I not? But I see no reason why, if the will exists, that Palestine could not also exist.
One thing is for certain: War is not the answer.
Karl Lisovsky, Venice
