Letters to the editor
Readers respond
PA primary scheduled for a Jewish holiday
We read in the Chronicle that the spring primary falls on Pesach (Passover). Although there is an alternative to vote earlier with absentee ballots, many hundreds of potential voters may not feel good that they are losing an opportunity to participate in the regular voting process. It’s therefore timely that we contact government officials in Harrisburg and voice our concern about the conflict between voting and observing the Yom Tov of Passover.
Michael Moshe Milch
Squirrel Hill
Prospect of peace between Palestinians and Israel is ‘distant’
As horrific and bloody as the current conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has been, an even greater tragedy awaits once the war ends. Even after thousands of people have died and much of Gaza has been leveled, and even if Hamas is somehow largely destroyed, nothing will have changed.
The war will eventually stop, but it will be a respite that will not last. That is because an old adage that has reached the status of being a cliché is applicable in this case. It is too often said that insanity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Too many on both sides have been doing the same thing for too long, and there is no indication they will stop. If anything, they will only more firmly contend that living alongside the other side is impossible.
Hamas and other Palestinian extremists think that if they commit enough barbaric acts of terrorism, they are going to somehow prevail. After those attacks, many Israelis think that if they just hit back hard enough it will deter future murderous assaults.
They are both wrong. And until there are enough people on both sides who are willing to talk instead of fight, it will just be a matter of time until the cycle of violence repeats itself. Unless that happens, neither Israelis nor Palestinians will live in peace as successive generations take up arms unable to see any alternative and the killing will continue. But the possibility of peace looks even more distant today than it did on Oct. 6, despite the thousands who have died since then.
Ambassador Dennis Jett (Ret.)
Pennsylvania State University
Suffering of Gazan civilians is the result of Hamas’ ‘miscalculation’
I would like to respond to Eileen Yacknin’s Nov. 10 letter to the editor, “Criticism of clergy’s open letter to Summer Lee.”
The suffering of the citizens of Gaza is terrible, but it is due to a horrible miscalculation by Hamas.
After the massacre of Oct. 7, Hamas retreated to the densely populated neighborhoods of Gaza, believing that there they would be safe from Israeli retaliation. Nothing short of a massive bombardment by Israel would be able to dislodge them from their miles of tunnels. That would lead to the death of thousands of noncombatants, something they thought Israel would never do.
But Hamas didn’t realize the emotional trauma its massacre would have on the Israeli public.
Israel has been urged not to respond the way the U.S. responded to the 9/11 attack. That is an erroneous comparison. The U.S. had no idea where the perpetrators of 9/11 were located. The Israelis knew exactly where to find the 10/7 butchers.
Civilians paying a terrible price in war is an old story, but the possibility of Hamas repeating the horror of 10/7 must, tragically, be eliminated by the current Israeli operation.
Mitchell Nyer
Pittsburgh
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