We say ‘Israel,’ but this is Netanyahu & Likud
Jersey City: Voicer Michael Abbey’s partial history lesson in the Voice of the People, while omitting the relevant fact that none of the noted “statehood offers” were evenhanded, including all majority Palestinian territories and access to sea ports necessary for a healthy economy at the time, had a surface validity. For a full picture of the current situation, however, one also needs to remember that the Likud Party running the current retaliatory Gaza invasion is the direct descendant of the terrorist Irgun and Stern Gang, which blew up trains and hotels, slaughtering innocent civilians in their struggle for a Jewish state.
When that state was achieved (following a basically democratic mold but not granting actual equality to all its residents), the first elections rejected the terrorists who had fought for their establishment — as any responsible electorate will — but with the ongoing troubles, the legal front for the terrorists, Likud, eventually won power. Their policy of meeting violence with violence exclusively did more to recruit the next generations of terrorists than any agitators in history.
The only thing that will bring an end to violence in the area is not “the destruction of Hamas” (a physical impossibility for a non-governmental group), but the kind of Marshall Plan to raise the standard of living of all sides as it did in Europe where any war became unthinkable. Toward that end, a ceasefire is an essential first step we should all be working for, together with a massive commitment to reconstructive aid to both sides as the only way to build the peace they both claim to want, and that is ultimately in all our best interests. John Esche
Sinister strategy
Manhattan: As a Jew, I am horrified by both the Hamas attack and the Israeli response. The Israeli government has now gone too far in its right to defend itself. It is very clear that those in control of the Israeli Defense Ministry want Palestinians in the Occupied Territories (Palestine) out, dead or alive. This is unacceptable. Furthermore, 6 million Jews did not die so Israel can justify its commitment of war crimes. Lee Levin
The terror agenda
Clearwater, Fla.: Not only is a ceasefire futile, it’s an insult to Israel to even suggest such a move. It would be rewarding Hamas for the massive atrocities they have committed. And besides, Hamas takes great pleasure in using the deaths of innocent Palestinians as propaganda against Israel. While the mainstream media eats it up like candy, Hamas’ lies incite more hateful antisemitic protests. Hamas may be winning in the press, but there is no doubt that Israel will win the war against Hamas. JoAnn Lee Frank
It’s all politics
Hammonton, N.J.: The Daily News Editorial Board claims the House speaker is playing politics by making aid for Israel and Ukraine two separate votes (“Playing politics in wartime,” editorial, Nov. 1). Well, of course it’s playing politics — everything in our dysfunctional government is. It is hard to believe the Biden administration really wants to help Ukraine given the reluctance to send aircraft and tanks as Russia massed troops on the border. Hesitancy and indecision get people killed in war. Also, the additional funding to the IRS to punish the middle class that the speaker wants to slash to help Israel is mind-boggling when considered against the fact that our border is wide open to allow millions of migrants to receive free everything and allow terrorists to bring these wars to our soil. The Biden administration perfectly embodies the old adage, “Lead or get the hell out of the way.” William Cook
Rich man’s game
Briarwood: The only reason the GOP wants to decrease the funding for the Internal Revenue Service is so that the rich members of the party can cheat on their taxes and reduce the probability of being held accountable for their criminality. This is the party of law and order? Mary Elizabeth Ellis
Getting smarter
Scranton, Pa.: John Lennon and George Harrison have passed on, but the Beatles released a new song this week. All it took was surviving band members Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — with the help of artificial intelligence — to resurrect the magic of the Fab 4, if it really ever left at all. AI has taken us back to Beatlemania, but only when it has the miraculous ability to bring lasting peace to the perpetual powder keg of the Middle East will it prove superior to the hobbled humanity it seems so desperate to replace. Vin Morabito
Running problem
Brooklyn: Mayor Adams, we need some help in Bay Ridge on Marathon Sunday. When the Verrazzano Bridge is closed for the race, our neighborhood experiences the worst gridlock I have seen in my 55 years of driving in NYC. It takes an hour to get from one side of the Gowanus Expressway to the other side. We have just a few crossings over the Gowanus, and God forbid you need an ambulance. No NYPD, no traffic enforcement agents to help us out. They closed the R train for repairs and put everyone on buses and sent them into the gridlock. Long after the runners are off the bridge, it stays closed for hours. The sooner the bridge can open, the sooner we get relief. Please help us out. Gregory Ahl
Cool to the bone
Dix Hills, L.I.: Re ” ‘The Fonz’ was ‘cool,’ & I wasn’t” (Oct. 31): I knew Henry Winkler through my cousins David and Helen in Lake Mahopac, N.Y., and oddly, my husband was at McBurney School (they played poker together). He was so cool, and cute and funny back then. I believe The Fonz was alive in him then and always will be. “Aaaay!” B. Lorge
Petulant defendant
Woodside: I’m sick to death of Donald Trump’s total inability to abide by judges’ orders. He whines incessantly about how unfairly he’s treated (according to him). The truth is, any one of us, the unentitled, would have been jailed long ago for these serious infractions. In addition, the dictators he admires so much, in similar circumstances, would have had him imprisoned — if not killed — in short order. His buddy Kim Jong Un would have him, his children and Melania sent to hard labor at a prison camp, and that would be that. Instead, in the soft-on-presidential-crime U.S.A., we get treated to Trump’s reminding us daily that he’s still a free man after trying to overturn a fair, fraud-free election that he lost more than two years ago. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! Sheila Richardson
Gag orders
Merion Station, Pa.: If New York’s Judge Arthur Engoron and Washington’s Judge Tanya Chutkan want to limit Donald Trump’s court-defying outbursts, they must realize that fines of $5,000 or $10,000 are meaningless to this billionaire, who’ll willingly spend more than those sums in attorney fees to argue against their imposition. For inspiration, they need to look to the 1969 trial of the Chicago 8, wherein Judge Julius Hoffman ordered Bobby Seale gagged and shackled for his courtroom outbursts. Paul L. Newman
Nail it down
Holbrook, L.I.: I spent several years on my town’s Board of Assessment Review. The BAR is responsible for reviewing property assessment grievance requests. At the bottom of every form, over the signature line, is a statement that says, “Under pain of perjury, the above is true and correct.” I bring this up because Trump rants that the value of Mar-a-Lago, $18 million, is undervalued by at least 100 times, meaning he believes its actual worth is $1.8 billion. A devastating question in his fraud case would be: “Mr. Trump, why did you or your agent say, under pain of perjury, that $18 million was overvalued? But you insist it’s worth $1.8 billion. Did you or your agent lie, under pain of perjury, about its value?” That would constitute fraud. I’d love to hear the answer. Michael L. Wilson
Competitive cruelty
New Rochelle, N.Y.: I applaud the letter from Voicer Kiley Blackman regarding S4099/A2917, the Wildlife Killing Contest Ban. As mentioned, this bill passed both the New York State Senate and Assembly, but awaits the governor’s signature to become law. Given that the brutality of these contests is particularly heinous — promoting a disregard for life and encouraging violence towards animals — I implore Gov. Hochul to sign this bill posthaste and send the message that animal abuse and cruelty has no place in New York. Christina DeRespiris
Voice of the People
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