David Haeckel sarcastically questions which friend America should support financially in his May 24 letter to the editor ( ). He ponders if America should support a country, Ukraine, fighting a superpower that threatens Western Europe or a country, Israel, that is decimating a small territory while killing its inhabitants. Haeckel seems to take democratic values for granted.
The right to free speech and practice of the religion of one’s choice are not guaranteed in the Middle East. Israel is the only democracy in the region protecting Western values including equal rights for its Arab citizens and its LGBTQ+ community. America supports Israel because it upholds these democratic values in the region.
Yes, America supports Israel, too, as a friend in the fight to return the hostages. Furthermore, it is Israel that is ferreting out Hamas, a terrorist organization embedded in the fabric of Palestinian society that in large part is responsible for the destruction and the deaths of tens of thousands of Gaza’s inhabitants. Should we believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a mistake in the May 26 bombing in Rafah? Since the Oct.
7 attack by Hamas, he has been constantly bombing the Gaza strip. More than 36,000 lives have been lost. If it’s a militant who is killed, it’s a victory; otherwise, it’s a mistake.
Netanyahu has bombed his own designated safe areas in the name of hunting down militants. He has put President Joe Biden in a diplomatic dilemma by not he.
