Letters to the editor

Elders can help fight antisemitism
Elders can help take back our colleges and fight the pervasive antisemitism on campus described so often in your pages, as by Jackie Hajdenberg in “At US Commission on Civil Rights hearing, Jewish students warn against politicizing campus antisemitism” (online, Feb. 23). Here’s how: Elders can audit courses at all state colleges at no charge (in their state of residence). We can be in the classrooms, read the course materials and be part of the discussions. We can provide perspective and counterpoint as may be appropriate. I’ve done this several times and the need is great. Many courses are remote, especially over the summer. The application process is a bit bureaucratic but not difficult. For details, check with the
registrar’s office of the college of your choice. Start now, registration opens now or soon for summer courses.

Yehuda Wiesen
Scarsdale, New York

Boycotts of Israel are problematic, but so is blaming the Israeli government for the Gaza war
I salute Marlene Marcus in her protest of a food store’s potential boycott of Israeli goods (“Co-op vote crosses the line into antisemitism,” Feb. 27). But I feel she is incorrect in her feelings about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the recent war in Gaza.

Hamas’ charter plainly states that the Jewish state will exist until Muslims destroy it. And Hamas has been working to make good on this threat ever since it was elected to administer Gaza in 2007. While claiming that an Israeli blockade prevented Hamas from developing the enclave’s economy, Hamas spent $1 billion building an extensive network of underground tunnels, embedded so deeply amidst the Gazan populace that any Israeli response to Hamas’ attacks on Israel would have to result in some casualties among people living under Hamas (mis)rule, despite Israel’s exemplary efforts to avoid harming civilians.

The IDF warned civilians to move away from areas that were going to be attacked; Hamas stored explosives in areas where the Gazans had been told to seek shelter. Homes, mosques and schools were connected to tunnels and used for storing munitions. Hamas held strategic planning sessions in hospital basements and fired missiles from schoolyards. Gazans were denied shelter in tunnels where Hamas fighters were hidden. Hamas stole Israeli-supplied food, intended for the Gazans, and gave that food to the fighters or sold it to the people at black market prices.

Hamas’ vow to inflict a thousand October 7s on Israel was, nonetheless, cheered by the people in Gaza, who were being used as human shields by Hamas. Israel was attempting to demilitarize Gaza and deradicalize the Gazans. Yet, the IDF strictly obeyed the rules of warfare, and achieved the lowest ratio of civilian deaths to combatant deaths ever seen in the annals of modern urban warfare, as attested by Major John Spencer, director of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point’s Modern Warfare Institute.

Toby F. Block
Atlanta, Georgia