To the Editor:

In his July 18 letter to the editor, Tom Ellis criticizes Israel regarding Hamas/Israel conflicts of the past, the current ongoing war in Gaza and the lack of peace with the Palestinians [“Hamas does not own the phrase any more than Republicans own the United States flag”].

Mr. Ellis is either sorely misinformed and poorly educated on the facts or he is purposely disseminating pro-Hamas propaganda that would truly make Hamas and all other terrorist groups proud. The United States, European Union, and other governments have designated Hamas a terrorist organization because of its attacks on Israel, including rocket attacks and bombings, and now the October 7 brutal massacre in Israel. His stating Israel is responsible for “ethnic cleansings” is among the most vile and baseless comments I’ve ever read. 

Mr. Ellis trivializes the barbarity of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel when thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and butchered, raped, burned alive, and murdered over 1,200 people, injured nearly 5,000 and took 241 as hostages, many of whom are now dead. Hamas has vowed to repeat October 7 over and over again.

Mr. Ellis apparently does not believe Israel has the right to self-defense. If Hamas had surrendered and released the hostages earlier, this conflict would have been over months ago with many fewer casualties.

Mr. Ellis tries to sugarcoat the plans for the elimination of the State of Israel by those who use the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” As clearly articulated by the American Jewish Committee website, this “is a rallying cry for terrorist groups and their sympathizers, from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to Hamas, which calls for Israel’s destruction. It calls for the establishment of a State of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, erasing the State of Israel and its people.”

So, however Mr. Ellis wants to distort the true meaning, the facts are clear; those chanting it want Israel and Israel’s people destroyed. 

Mr. Ellis misleadingly would have the reader believe that Israel always wanted a siege on Gaza. The facts are that Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005 leaving greenhouses and other structures intact and Gaza could have become a beautiful coastal tourist country, but Hamas came to power in 2006 and has been terrorizing Israel ever since due to its desire to destroy Israel and the Jewish people.

The billions of dollars in aid received in Gaza have not been used by Hamas to provide a better life for its people. Rather, the money has been used by Hamas to build over 300 miles of terror tunnels and weapons to attack Israel. Israel has had no choice but to protect its borders with Gaza and attempt to limit weapons from entering Gaza.

Mr. Ellis repeats the complete lie that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Civilian deaths in any war are unfortunate risks and Israel does not want them. Israel has used millions of leaflets, text messages, and phone calls warning civilians to evacuate before military attacks.

But Hamas and its leader [Yahya] Sinwar intentionally place Gazan civilians at risk. Hamas hides behind civilians in schools, mosques, homes, hospitals, etc. Sinwar insisted the Times of Israel wrote on June 11, 2024 that “civilian bloodshed in Gaza is a necessary sacrifice that will lead to the liberation of Palestine.” The Times of Israel article states this “bolsters accusations that the terror group has intentionally put its people in harm’s way” …. The claim of genocide is unfounded and only used to impugn Israel by those who hate Israel.

Mr. Ellis’s attempts to justify his abhorrent beliefs by stating that many Jews side with him. Well, so what? Those people can believe whatever nonsense they want. Jews are not a homogeneous people and there are “self-hating” Jews, too. His citing that Jews he knows support his vile beliefs is meaningless.

The Jewish people have a verified right to the land. The biblical land of Israel includes both pre- and post-1967 borders, including the “West Bank.”  This is backed by historical, religious, and archeological evidence, with Jerusalem mentioned more than 660 times in the Hebrew Bible. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Qur’an, the sacred scripture of Islam.

As a result of the 1948 Israel War of Independence, over 800,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries while; by United Nation estimate, 711,000 Arabs left Israel. In contrast to the Jews expelled, most Arabs fled to follow their leaders or were told to leave by the attacking Arab countries (Gilead Ini; CAMERA.org May 12, 2009).

Today, about 18 percent of Israel’s population are Muslim, including Muslim members of the Knesset, the Supreme Court, and medical professionals — and Muslim citizens of Israel have full rights paralleling those of Israel’s Jewish citizens. There are no Jews permitted in Gaza (except the hostages) and virtually no Jews in any of the surrounding Arab countries. Why doesn’t Mr. Ellis object to these apartheid practices?

Mr. Ellis ignores Hamas’s years of terror and wrongly attributes the lack of peace to Israel’s defensive actions over the years. Israel didn’t start this current conflict in Gaza. Many times Israel has offered peace to the Palestinians of the “West Bank” and those in Gaza, but Israel’s efforts to obtain peace have been rejected every time.

Elliott Greene

Altamont