Readers Write: Israel and Gaza

Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Unless both Israelis and Palestinians are treated equally, with equal rights and dignity, there can be no peace in the Middle East. The question to be asked is not how Israeli security failed to detect the Oct. 7 attacks but rather what policies of Israel toward the Palestinians created a climate in which such horrific acts could be contemplated. For 75 years, starting with the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinians off their lands, Israeli policies have persecuted the Palestinians and denied them their basic human rights, becoming more severe in recent years. While many courageous Jewish voices within Israel and around the world have spoken out against Israel's actions, the United States has looked the other away, more or less pretended the Palestinians did not exist, and funded and allowed Israeli policies to perpetuate. Around 1,200 Israelis were murdered and over 11,000 and counting Palestinians, including over 4,000 children, have been killed in revenge. What will that solve except to create more hatred?

More war is not the answer. Fortress Israel was never a solution, neither before Oct. 7 nor since. The only solution is to create one just, fair and equitable state with one person, one vote, that protects the rights of all and treats all peoples equally.

Stanley Woolner, St. Paul

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What political structure should Israel impose on Gaza? The hurdles are clear: a traumatized and antagonized population lacking a history of effective democracy.

Rather than imposing a fully fledged democratic structure susceptible to illiberal manipulation, why not grow a democracy slowly? The idea would be to begin with micro political units, say a city block, and run elections for representatives who would interact with the Israel authorities. Two years later, another election would be run with additional, larger political units, say four city blocks. Every two years you could add a larger layer of representation. As the democracy evolves, Israel would release a proportional amount of civil control. In this concrete way, the citizens, seeing directly the benefits of this close representation, would learn to understand and trust democracy. It also would allow time for political parties to organize and develop within the boundaries of liberal democracy, namely, a well-ordered and civil society.

To misquote Sting, the Palestinians love their children too. The inclination to war rarely if ever arises from the people. One of the virtues of liberal democracy is allowing this natural disinclination to violence and war to have its say and influence with the political leaders. But for this to occur, a culture that trusts the democratic process is needed. The micro-to-macro model I suggest may be the way to get it.

Craig Peterson, Minneapolis

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On Oct. 13 a group of faculty members from the University of Minnesota's department of gender, women and sexuality studies released a statement criticizing Israel. It described the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel as an "incursion" where "Hamas fighters brought down border fences" to which Israel responded by declaring "a total war on Gaza." They accused Israel of conducting "a genocidal war against Gaza, and against Palestinian freedom, self determination, and life."

The irony of this statement is that Hamas follows strict Islamic law. It is in fact an anti-gay, anti-female and anti-democratic organization funded by Iran (the ones whose morality police murdered a young Iranian woman by the name of Mahsa Amini for allegedly not wearing a hijab properly).

Gay Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank risk torture and death at the hands of Hamas. In 2021 Gaza was listed as one of the worst places in the world for gay travelers. Homosexual acts in Gaza are punishable by 10 years in prison.

Over the past few years progressives in this country have called for gay rights, women's rights and the preservation of democracy. Hamas does not embrace those ideals. They are the antithesis of what progressives stand for.

So it's ironic that U department of gender, women and sexuality would condemn Israel — a democracy that protects both women's and gay rights — while disregarding the atrocities committed against these groups by Hamas. Atrocities that include the brutal rapes of Israeli women.

Israel isn't perfect. It must commit to a two-state solution and strive to eliminate civilian casualties in this conflict. But let us not forget the real enemy of both the Israeli and Palestinian people is Hamas.

Jim Piga, Mendota Heights

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Experiencing the coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, I am left asking, "Who is entitled to hate more? Who should be hated more?" This war has increased both antisemitism and Islamophobia. We should be talking about both. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's authoritarian, right-wing overreach had created domestic chaos in Israel that is now on hold — can't it be seen that this war then benefits his tenuous hold on power? The Palestinians were excluded from Donald Trump's son-in-law's Abraham Accords, thus making it seem like the U.S. negated their right to participate in the decisions about Middle East's affairs. Isn't there reason to be suspicious of both sides? Aren't we now asked to declare which side to hate more? Across the globe ordinary people are faced with a choice (or all too often no choice): How do we rid ourselves of these ever-present leaders whose only motivation to serve is to hold power over others? They lead by promoting the idea that "others" are defined as those whose values, religion or skin color is different from their own. Don't buy their hate so easily and decide for yourself who deserves to be hated more.

Diane Pulling, Victoria

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I am a school psychologist working in Minneapolis Public Schools, where I have been a union member for many years. I heard about the Nov. 14 Israel-Palestine resolution distributed by the teachers union as I drove in to work. As soon as I sat at my desk I found it online, and I agreed with the first several sentences. The call for a humanitarian cease-fire is laudable ("Teachers union statement on Middle East sparks rift," Nov. 21).

Then I came to the part about "the system of Israeli occupation and apartheid, which lies at the root of the Palestinian Israeli conflict." What the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers is saying here is that Israeli actions are the root cause of the conflict. The statement ignores the fact that the root causes go back generations, and that it devolved into the current state as a result of deplorable actions taken by both sides. It implies that one side is composed of malevolent perpetrators, while on the other are innocent victims.

The blame in this statement adds fuel to the fire. It serves to justify retaliation, which perpetuates the cycle of violence. Gaza requires us to hold opposing thoughts in our heads at the same time. Instead of blaming, we should honor the pain of Palestinian fathers holding dead daughters, and Israeli mothers burying their murdered sons, of Palestinian need for a coherent country and of Jews needing a safe homeland. Maybe when each side can articulate the suffering of the other we will see progress. The Nov. 14 MFT statement makes this level of understanding more distant.

Kent W. Elliott Allen, Shoreview

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Apparently the MFT has enough free time to make a statement about the ongoing Israeli war. In demonstrating its support for Palestinians, it ruffled the feathers of the district's Jewish parents and students. You would think in this uber-sensitive world of culture and religion, it would think twice about making an official comment. Evidently not.

How is the school district doing in the arena of academics? Some research (schooldigger.com) shows that overall Minneapolis is ranked 312 out of 567 statewide school districts. That puts the district in the bottom half. Maybe the MFT ought to focus on improving the outlook for its 30,000 students rather than international affairs? Possibly these efforts might result in graduates with the skills to solve many of our vexing challenges across a broad spectrum of topics.

Joe Polunc, Waconia