Letters to the Editor: Why the World Court’s Gaza war ruling wasn’t a major blow to Israel

To the editor: Your coverage of the decision from the United Nations International Court of Justice is perplexing and troubling. (“World Court orders Israel to prevent genocide — but falls short of demanding end to Gaza war,” Jan. 26)

While reporting in great detail the ICJ’s findings concerning claims of genocide by Israel, your story largely ignores a second, and just as important, issue. You devote only one sentence, deep in the article, to the court’s finding that the hostages should be released “unconditionally.”

This is a crucial humanitarian issue and a profoundly important conclusion. The treatment, or lack of treatment more rightly, of such an important matter is unfair.

The taking and holding of these innocent hostages, and an order for their unconditional release, deserves unbiased coverage.

David A. Lash, Los Angeles

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To the editor: As a chaplain and cantorial soloist, I’m finding it increasingly challenging to recite many prayers and reflections that I’ve said forever.

One such prayer reads, in part, “Our thoughts turn to those who have departed this Earth: our own loved ones ... and those of every race and nation whose lives have been a blessing to humanity.”

Yet many Israeli Jews are managing to look away from the intense suffering in Gaza.

What blessings to humanity might those innocent Palestinian children have brought to our world? What blessings are we deprived of because of the loss of Jewish souls?

If Israelis and Jews everywhere cannot openly question this without fear of being labeled as “enemies within” — as Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is reported as saying — and if there is an “unprecedented government campaign to stifle critiques of the conflict,” then how is Israel different from the very autocracies we rail against?

This is very scary to me.

Mitzi Schwarz, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Couldn’t The Times bother to explain that the ICJ made no findings of fact?

The ICJ expressly deferred any ruling on the merits of the allegations of genocide against Israel. One would never know that from your headline, which suggests that the number of deaths had already been determined to be some kind of crime.

Similarly, your print edition subheadline, “U.N. court tells nation to do more to prevent genocide but does not demand end to war,” suggests that Israel has committed genocide.

The decision of the ICJ could be described in many different ways. The Times’ description implies that Israel has already been found guilty. This is not good reporting.

Mona Deutsch Miller, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Your article on the ICJ ruling cites Kobi Michael, a professor at Israel’s Institute of National Security Studies, as defending Israel’s war actions in Gaza because those actions are no different than what the Americans did in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Obviously, Professor Michael never learned what we all learned in kindergarten: Two wrongs don’t make a right.

David Quintero, Monrovia