To the editor: Every war is horrible. At the Casablanca Conference during World War II in 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided on a policy of unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. That goal, which is similar to Israel's current goal in the Gaza Strip, required civilian deaths by shooting in Tokyo, bombing of cities in Germany, and atomic destruction of two cities in Japan. (“Israel’s war in Gaza is horrible, but that doesn’t mean Hamas is innocent of sexual violence,” Opinion, May 19)
Would President Biden's national security team have withheld weapons from Britain and Russia at that time?
Israel, as urban warfare experts have noted, has conducted this difficult war in Gaza far superior in terms of civilian deaths than American forces did in our Iraq war.
The idea that humanity has since evolved to a better state and that war is now different and must be fought under better rules is as fallacious as it is dangerous to those defending themselves against evils like the carnage of Hamas.
Paul Bloustein, Cincinnati
..
To the editor: To be sure, Hamas, a recognized terrorist group, unleashed its worst fanatics in its October 7 attack on Israel. Perhaps sexual violence was a “strategy,” a thought Robin Abcarian considers in his column.
Would you mind writing another column about the Israeli “strategy” of dropping bombs on residential areas and hospitals? Perhaps there will be a study describing the resulting mangled bodies and gore.
Then we could have more balance on your Opinion page.
Jim Mueller, Redondo Beach
..
To the editor: Through interviews with numerous eyewitnesses, Sheryl Sandberg's documentary “Screams Before Silence” details Hamas' systematic use of rape and barbaric sexual mutilation and violence as weapons of war against Israeli women.
Testimony from former hostages, music festival massacre survivors, and first responders is powerful and compelling, establishing that Hamas perpetrated these crimes both during its October 7 massacre in Israel and during the subsequent captivity of the hostages in Gaza.
However, those who deny that Hamas systematically perpetrated rape and sexual violence against Israelis do so for the same reason as Holocaust deniers: to discredit and dehumanize the Jewish victims of these horrific atrocities.
Stephen A. Plata, San Francisco
