Deborah Esther Schifter made a really important point in her beautiful guest column [“Both Sides Now,” Gazette, Feb. 21] acknowledging the legitimate concerns of both sides in the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that “when a person is under attack, the heart shrinks.”

Yes! It is this shrinking of the heart that is possibly the true enemy. But what are we tender-hearted humans to do? As Schifter so clearly articulates, “It is up to those of us who aren’t under physical threat to discipline ourselves, to keep our hearts open, to hear the anguish, to listen to their pleas, to acknowledge the injustices suffered by Jews and Palestinians alike.”

Sign me up. Let’s start marching in the streets for both sides! Imagine how much more powerful we would be if we put all of our hearts together!

Rachel Markowitz

Northampton