To the Editor:
David Mintz’s retelling of the liberal left’s anti-Semitic narrative is intolerable to leave unremarked upon.
Here is why his ghastly letter calling for an immediate ceasefire is anti-Semitic and out of touch with reality:
- Hamas is guilty of intending a genocide, not Israel. Read the Covenant of Hamas, and listen to any extremist Islamic leader explain their goal. Look at videos from the Oct. 7 pogrom. Israel is responding by rooting out Hamas terrorists and their war command centers in tunnels under hospitals, schools, and residences, to protect itself from Hamas’ promise of repeated massacres.
- The writer is ignoring both the intentions and publicized actions of Israel and the IDF to avoid civilian death. The IDF is known the world over for being a moral army. That is not a distinction that anyone can ever apply to Hamas.
- The writer never makes the connection that Hamas intentionally did not provide bomb shelters, evacuation routes, and safer harbors for their own people during the one to two years of meticulous planning for Oct. 7. Hamas anticipated Israel’s response, wanted it, to gain worldwide support when photos of lifeless, precious Palestinian children would be shown, making the world forget about hostages, burned Israelis, and the massacre by Hamas that started the war, and bringing about this resurgence of Jew hatred everywhere.
- There was a ceasefire in effect on Oct. 6. Hamas broke it on Oct. 7, just as they have broken every other ceasefire with Israel.
- What does Mintz imagine will happen to Israel if a ceasefire is called now? Why hasn’t he even mentioned that the innocent hostages should be released? Why hasn’t he mentioned that Hamas should surrender? Is he in favor of the erupting pro-Palestinian violence, and all the hate crimes against Jews and Jewish organizations, or is that just not on his radar, because he’s wrapped up in a distorted view of who is oppressing whom?
- Mintz says, “If they can do it to them, they can do it to you.” Do what? And who exactly is “they”? There are 1.5 million Arab citizens living, working, and praying peacefully inside Israel, to say nothing of the Christians.
- Like most anti-Israel people, Mintz is ignorant of the facts surrounding the formation of the State of Israel, and the ancient history of the Jewish homeland, going back thousands of years. Arab leaders have rejected offers of a homeland for Palestinians because they refuse to allow for the existence of Israel.
- The Hamas Covenant is self-explanatory. This is the “resistance movement” that many Americans are using to excuse the Oct. 7 massacre, just as David Mintz does in his letter when he says, Yes, the massacre was bad, BUT… “it didn’t happen in a vacuum.”
- How exactly is Israel oppressing Gaza? Mintz fails to explain this ongoing lie. There has not been a Jew in Gaza for 17 years. Hamas was voted into power 16 years ago. How is Hamas not oppressing Gazans? When Hamas isn’t bombing Israeli citizens, over the years, Gazans cross the border into Israel to work, and get medical care.
- It is legitimate to criticize the extreme right’s behavior in the West Bank, and to be against Netanyahu — or any Israeli government policy. The political divisions inside Israel are well-known. But the entire country came together on Oct. 7, just as America mostly came together on 9/11. In a time of brutal, unprovoked war against innocents, normal people don’t usually side with the terrorists, and blame the victims for being attacked — unless it’s Israel.
- “The question comes down to this: Do you oppose genocide?” Mintz asks. Apparently, it boils down to whose genocide you refer. Or maybe the writer does not know what a genocide is. Anti-Semitism comes in two sizes: A, Deniers/minimizers; and B, They Had It Coming. Mintz is in Camp B. “Oppression” is his excuse for it.
I am grateful to The MV Times for allowing both sides to express their views. History will tell who the genocidal maniacs are. How anyone can go to such lengths to validate with false information and a “yes, but …” regarding the events of Oct. 7, dismissing the sheer necessity to make sure it never happens again, is beyond my understanding. But it seems to me the majority of the world is doing just that.
No ceasefire until the hostages are released and Hamas surrenders. Free Gaza from Hamas. May all innocents be comforted and protected.
Jackie Mendez-Diez
New York City, formerly Chilmark
