To the Editor:

I read Maureen Baillargeon Aumand’s lengthy letter in the Altamont Enterprise’s Aug. 21 issue [“Does an exercise in imagining move us to truly understand the horrors in Gaza?”] It contained several alleged facts and assumptions that stimulated my imagination to respond.

Since the letter was a “vision” of conditions in Gaza as seen from a politically biased outsider, I, too, let my imagination envision conditions in Israel, which may account for the one-sided opinion piece. 

The state of Israel has an area of 8,522 square miles. 

Let us take the state of New Jersey with an almost equivalent area of 8,773 square miles. 

It just so happens that the population (as of 2024) of these two states are similar: 9.974 million people live in New Jersey; 9.501 million people live in Israel. 

Imagine the states of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware were virulent enemies surrounding New Jersey, and that, over the 77 years New Jersey has been a sovereign state, it has been subjected to acts of war and terrorism, killing, maiming, and terrorizing its citizens over and over again. 

Now imagine Delaware sends several hundreds of its soldiers over the New Jersey border and slaughters New Jersey civilians indiscriminately — elderly men and women, children; pregnant women are raped, men are beheaded, no one they encounter is spared their mayhem. Then, as quickly as they came, they leave. 

The leader of New Jersey, after consulting with its elected politicians, calls for extreme measures of retaliation, focusing the ire of the people of his state towards eradicating the known source of the attack, a terrorist organization operating in Delaware, which is heavily supported by its people.

This organization is known to use facilities such as hospitals, schools, and large housing projects as headquarters and staging areas. They also are prone to use their own people as human shields, something seen in World War II by the Japanese. 

In order to carry out the wishes of his people, attempting to keep military personnel safe while also sparing Delawarean lives, specific rules of engagement must be spelled out and followed. Casualties on both sides are expected, as they are in any military operation. The mission must continue no matter the cost. 

The tonnage of ordinance as compared with Hiroshima is very apt since the latter event caused untold death, but brought about the surrender of Japan. If the people of Delaware expected New Jersey to stand by in the face of this tragedy, they were delusional.

The aftermath resulting in their suffering was of their own making. As of now I have not heard any apologies, any offering of remorse from any of Israel’s neighbors. 

Ms. Aumand uses the term “our neighbors” when counting the number of deaths in Gaza. Why no mention of the deaths of Israeli citizens, nor the manner of those deaths. Why no commensurate sorrow for those who died in Israel? Are Israelis no less deserving of empathy for their suffering? 

I certainly am moved to understand the horrors of this atrocity caused solely by unrestrained terrorism. We must understand there is evil in this world. How it may be rooted out is difficult to imagine. If an example can be made by seeing the horrible outcome, as the Holocaust so shocked Ms. Aumand when she learned of it as a teenager, maybe we can imagine peace instead of war when working out our differences.

Charles Eson

Altamont