Letters to the Editor: Hamas’ barbarity and the rules of war we expect Israel to obey
To the editor: All war is horrific. At the Casablanca Conference during World War II in 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided on a policy of unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. That goal, which is similar to Israel’s today in the Gaza Strip, necessitated civilian deaths by means of fire in Tokyo, bombing of cities in Germany and atomic destruction of two cities in Japan. (“Israel’s Gaza war is horrific, but that doesn’t mean Hamas is innocent of sexual violence,” Opinion, May 19)
Would President Biden’s national security team have withheld arms from Britain and Russia at that time?
Israel, as experts in urban warfare have noted, has conducted this very difficult war in Gaza in a manner far superior with respect to civilian deaths than American forces did in our Iraq war.
The idea that humanity has evolved since that time to a better state and that war is now different and should be fought with better rules is as fallacious as it is dangerous for those who defend against evil such as Hamas’ butchery.
Paul Bloustein, Cincinnati
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To the editor: No doubt Hamas, a recognized terrorist group, unleashed their worst fanatics for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Maybe sexual violence was a “strategy,” a thought Robin Abcarian considers in her column.
Would she care to write another column about the Israeli “strategy” of dropping bombs on residential areas and hospitals? Perhaps there is a study describing the resulting torn bodies and gore.
Then we might have more balance on your Opinion page.
Jim Mueller, Redondo Beach
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To the editor: Through interviews with numerous eyewitnesses, Sheryl Sandberg’s documentary “Screams Before Silence” details Hamas’ systematic use of rape and barbaric sexual mutilation and violence as weapons of war against Israeli women.
The testimony of former hostages, music festival massacre survivors and first responders is powerful and compelling, establishing that Hamas perpetrated these crimes during both its Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the hostages’ subsequent captivity in Gaza.
Those who nevertheless deny that Hamas systematically perpetrated rape and sexual violence against Israelis do so for the same reason as those who deny the Holocaust: to discredit and dehumanize the Jewish victims of these horrific atrocities.
Stephen A. Silver, San Francisco
