I have read Frances ReMillard’s letters to the editor concerning Palestine for several decades, including her last on Nov. 9. I appreciate her deep sympathy for the Palestinian people who have suffered great hardships, both inflicted and self-inflicted.
What I find deeply troubling is her willingness to describe violence as the Palestinians’ “right to defend themselves.” The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, better known as the Hamas Charter states: “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.” Hamas seeks to create an Islamic state from the river to the sea, which means the purging of Israel and its people. That is why the United States labeled it a terrorist organization.
Change through violence is unacceptable. The end never justifies the means. Hamas has, in word and deed, declared war on Israelis without distinction between soldiers and civilians and regardless of age or gender. Hamas’ barbaric and uncontrolled violence on Oct. 7 resulted in the mutilation and death of innocents. Their only crime was being Jewish. Launching hundreds of rockets targeting Israeli communities showed no mercy.
Perhaps a hypothetical is valuable here. What would our response be if drug cartels in Mexico rocketed San Diego, declaring the injustice of the Mexican-American War of 1847 and demanding the return of California, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico? No nation can accept its own dissolution or stand by as its citizens are murdered.
Robert A. Goldberg, Salt Lake City
