Opinions on Israel-Hamas war: ‘Never again is now’ (Your Letters)

What you can do: Write to your representatives

To the Editor:

As a Jew, I am still reeling from the horrifying mass killing of Israelis and Palestinians in the last week and a half. I imagine all of us are, whatever our identity. Many have tragically lost loved ones. We don’t have time to choose between grieving and acting. Although it feels like there is little we can do, writing legislators can make a difference if we all do it. Will you?

We must condemn the indiscriminate violence and war crimes carried out in both Israel and Gaza. Peace and justice can never be achieved through slaughtering civilians, taking hostages, conducting airstrikes, and depriving millions of people of food, water, electricity, shelter and medicine. At least 3,000 people have been killed already in Gaza — over 500 of whom are children.

Urge your representatives to:

• Stand for a ceasefire, de-escalation, adherence to international law and diplomacy and to
• Refrain from fueling the fires with more weapons

Never again is now.

Diane Swords

Syracuse

Dialogue can help break the cycle of violence

To the Editor:

An article from the Middle East tells us about the 3-year-old girl living in Gaza asking her father: Why are they trying ti kill us? Will it be painful to die? Are we going to die one by one or all at once? She could easily have been a little girl living in a village or kibbutz in southern Israel asking those very same questions to her dad. One matter we can all agree on: We should not be living in a world where 3-year-old children need to ask questions about life or death. They should be hearing stories that give them hope and confidence in their future, and that give them a feeling of security and belief in the goodness of mankind.

The great physicist Issac Newton stated in his third law of motion: A force acting on a body creates an equal and opposite reaction. In human affairs we need to revise that idea to acknowledge that when humans feel they are wronged, they often respond in a larger,…