The March 16 letter [“Eliminating Iranian resistance to Greater Israel“] is an attempt to continue a failing depiction of conflict in the Middle East and evade the truth about Palestinian responsibility. The writer continues the use of words (colonial, genocide, crimes against humanity, apartheid, expansionist policy, regional supremacy) as though they are settled and valid. They are not. Demonizing doesn’t work. Israel has flaws, its history is complicated, and its leader is certainly not a paragon of honesty or virtue, but the attitudes that are attributed to Israel are simply wrong.

There is no goal of “regional supremacy.” The only goal of the Israeli nation is to live in peace and be free of fear of attack. It is a matter of survival. That is why it traded land for peace with Egypt and vacated the Sinai.

It seems that the people who wrap themselves in the cause of the Palestinians can never accept responsibility for prolonging the conflict or for inflaming it. No one in Gaza had any reason to fear Israeli attack on October 6, 2023. That changed when Hamas, supported by Iran and the residents of Gaza, chose to brutally attack Israel on October 7. Everything that occurred since then is the result of that attack.

The current conflict is the result of decades of clearly expressed Iranian intentions to destroy Israel and its ongoing support of Hezbollah and Hamas to continue to attack Israeli civilians. This conflict is terrible and should not be taking place but Iran is not an innocent victim.

If Iran is non-nuclear it is certainly not for a lack of trying. It is also laughable to assign any credibility to Ali Khamenei’s statement that they will not be nuclear because nuclear weapons are contrary to Islamic principles. I would think that murdering thousands of his fellow Iranians would also be against Islamic principles but it seems he found a way around that as well. If a leader keeps saying he wants to destroy you, you should believe it and respond appropriately. Let’s be objective, people. It takes courage but it works.

David Sloviter

Amherst