To the editor: Their coverage of the United Nations International Court of Justice decision is disconcerting and worrying. (“World Court orders Israel to prevent genocide, but stops short of demanding end to Gaza war,” January 26)
While he reports in great detail the ICJ's findings on Israel's genocide accusations, his article largely ignores a second, equally important issue. You devote only one sentence, deep in the article, to the court's conclusion that the hostages should be released “unconditionally.”
This is a crucial humanitarian question and a deeply important conclusion. The treatment, or rather the lack of treatment, of such an important issue is unfair.
The taking and holding of these innocent hostages and an order for their unconditional release deserve impartial coverage.
David A. Lash, Los Angeles
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To the editor: As a chaplain and cantorial soloist, I find it increasingly difficult to recite many prayers and reflections that I have always said.
One such prayer reads, in part: “Our thoughts go to those who have departed this Earth: our own loved ones… and those of all races and nations whose lives have been a blessing to humanity.”
However, many Israeli Jews are managing to look away from the intense suffering in Gaza.
What blessings to humanity could those innocent Palestinian children have brought to our world? What blessings are we deprived of because of the loss of Jewish souls?
If Israelis and Jews around the world cannot openly question this without fear of being labeled “enemies within” – as Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is reported to have said – and if there is a “campaign unprecedented government effort to quell criticism of the conflict, So how is Israel different from the same autocracies we rail against?
This scares me very much.
Mitzi Schwarz, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Could The Times not bother to explain that the ICJ made no factual findings?
The ICJ expressly postponed any decision on the merits of the genocide accusations against Israel. One would never know that from its headline, which suggests that the number of deaths had already been determined to be some type of crime.
Similarly, the subtitle of its print edition, “UN court orders nation to do more to prevent genocide but does not demand end to war,” suggests that Israel has committed genocide.
The ICJ decision could be described in many different ways. The Times' description implies that Israel has already been found guilty. This is not a good report.
Mona Deutsch Miller, Los Angeles
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To the editor: His article on the ICJ ruling quotes Kobi Michael, a professor at the Israel Institute for National Security Studies, defending Israel's war actions in Gaza because those actions are no different from what the Americans did in the Iraq wars. and Afghanistan.
Obviously, Professor Michael never learned what we all learned in kindergarten: two wrongs don't make a right.
David Quintero, Monrovia
