Deer Collisions
Springs
October 20, 2024
To the Editor,
I'm disappointed to see the town administration has voted to allocate $150,000 to pay for an engineering study for the misguided plan to install a roundabout at Stephen Hand's Path and Two Holes of Water intersection -- the eventual cost may be $2 million in town funds. This would seem to be just one of the many contributing factors for the recently proposed 8-percent tax increase by the town.
Is there a traffic problem there? Yes, just as there are at a dozen other intersections in town. However, I assume if any real analysis of traffic data had been done, it would show we have greater risks at other locations. Also, the town's transportation supervisor has apparently said in the past that two more stop signs at this intersection would help reduce the problems there.
Some complain traffic might build up too much on Stephen Hand's Path if only stop signs were added. If that is the case, then a well-timed streetlight should solve the problem for less than a tenth of the cost of a roundabout. Can that be tried first? The cost of the engineering study should likely cover it.
It's also disappointing that no real traffic data analysis has been shown to back up the supposed need for this expenditure. From data I've seen, there are only three accidents per year on average in this area of Stephen Hand's Path for the last decade. It should be pointed out though, some of these collisions are with deer -- will a $2-million traffic circle fix that?
If the town is really so concerned about traffic safety, then it should finally start addressing the serious deer-collision problem. East Hampton has averaged 500 per year for the last decade, up from less than 100 three decades ago, according to an old article from this paper.
My guess is we must lead New York State in this category, given that some refuse to admit that we don't have the natural predators to keep the deer herd in check. Not only is this a traffic-safety issue, but deer have decimated the natural underbrush in many parts of town and are the leading cause of the many tick-borne illnesses that some doctors in our area have warned are an epidemic.
Lastly, if this roundabout proposal is about safety, it should be acknowledged that there has not been one traffic-related fatality reported in this stretch of Stephen Hand's Path from 2005 to 2021, according to city-data.com. There have been 40 in total in East Hampton during that period. Perhaps the town should start looking at Route 27 in Amagansett and Napeague, where almost a third of these fatalities have occurred?
That leads me to the other proposed roundabout, at Springs-Fireplace Road and North Main Street, that is also being debated. Just put in a well-timed streetlight there, too, and avoid the hassle of trying to take back preserve land. This would likely save Suffolk County $2 million, which also comes from the local tax base. The savings on both the town and county roundabout proposals should allow for improvement in other areas that are more deserving and badly needed.
For a town that can't balance a budget during good times, I'd suggest more fiscal discipline, but also just common sense.
BRAD BROOKS
Preserve the Land
East Hampton
October 21, 2024
Dear David,
I find it difficult to understand the genesis of the East Hampton Town Board's Proposition 3 vote to alienate the Sherrill Foster Triangle at the base of Three Mile Harbor and Springs-Fireplace roads.
This two-plus-acre nature preserve land was donated to the town many years ago for the sole purpose to preserve the land in perpetuity and protect it from development.
The hamlet and corridor studies that have been prepared for the town by taxpayer-paid consultants in the past recommended that this green-space parcel should be enhanced, not destroyed.
The town board proposes to hand over ownership of this important green and wooded area to Suffolk County to potentially build a massive concrete and asphalt roundabout in the middle of a sensitive area with a six-acre horse farm to the east and a residential and small commercial business area to the west and south, where people live and work.
If a "yes" vote wins, ultimately it means that Suffolk County will be able to create any type of traffic-control initiative that they choose to implement without any review, oversight, or aesthetic consideration by our town at the gateway to our historic Freetown and Springs neighborhoods.
When I mentioned my concern about this to Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez before a town board meeting last month, she told me if it wins the vote in November I can take my concerns to Suffolk County and legislator Ann Welker.
Seriously, can we rely on Suffolk County officials to consider our hamlet and corridor studies and the rural nature of our town, when our own town officials willingly give away donated and protected land and its oversight? This property was donated to the Town of East Hampton, not to the town board to do as they please, and certainly not, with all due respect, to Ann Welker.
We need our elected officials to protect land that is donated to the town and to work in partnership with the county to determine what the best solution would be for the traffic concerns in this sensitive area without the alienation of the entire two-plus acres of a nature preserve green space. It concerns me that this town board is willing to hand over this land and the right of overview without knowing how it will impact our rural landscape and the people who live and work in this area of East Hampton.
Fortunately, we the voters of East Hampton can vote "no" on Proposition 3 and send this back to the town board to do the work, together with Suffolk County, to address traffic concerns with new traffic devices, instead of clearing and paving a nature preserve, which is the antithesis of preservation.
BETSY PETROSKI
A Subterfuge
East Hampton
October 20, 2024
Dear Mr. Rattray,
"The Coalition to Destroy the Maidstone Gun Club" that deceptively calls itself the Coalition to Transform the East Hampton Airport is a self-interested group that claims to have "deep pockets" and is willing to pay any amount of money to wrest the land from the Maidstone Club that the club has inhabited for the last 40 years. (See: Gangemi, C.; Motz, J., Oct. 10, "Coalition Sets Its Sights on Gun Club.")
Under the guise of benevolently converting the Maidstone property into walking and hiking trails and in exchange demolishing the club and displacing its members, the coalition maintains that it will be providing an enhanced recreational benefit to the community. This "trade-off" should be measured against the actual circumstances.
The property upon which the club is located is less than one-fifth of a square mile -- not a generous area for hiking. East Hampton already has miles upon miles of hiking and walking trails which include: the Buckskill trail system; East Hampton to Sag Harbor Trail; Shadmoor and Rheinstein Park trails; Grace Estate trails; Jacob's Farm trail; East Hampton Village Nature Trail; Cathy Lester loop; Amsterdam Beach trails; Boys and Girls Harbor Park; Culloden Point Preserve; Soak Hides Preserve; Cedar Point trails; Northwest Woods trails; Rod's Valley Park Preserve; Springs and Amagansett trail; Northwest Path to Scoy Pond; Foster's Path from Two Holes pond; Paumanok Path, and Stony Hill area trails. In addition to those 19 East Hampton venues, there are many more miles of such public facilities located in neighboring Sag Harbor, Southampton, Shelter Island, Hither Hills, and Montauk.
On the other hand, the Maidstone Gun Club is the only recreational facility of its kind between the 43-mile span from Riverhead to Montauk. It services over 1,000 members and their guests and fills a unique void. It provides endless hours of enjoyment for its members and their families, such as mine, as we socialize and enjoy the sports. The members are from all walks of life –– a welcoming melting pot of our community. The club holds charity events, is the training ground for the police department, accommodates the local Boy Scouts, and provides a forum for nationally sanctioned sporting competitions.
Maidstone is in the midst of an aggressive reorganization program committed to providing enhanced safety on its property and beyond, developing comprehensive training programs, modifying its activities to provide additional protection to the neighborhood, assuring proper environmental measures, and engaging with the community. It does not present any environmental threat as some like to claim.
The Maidstone Club is a popular East Hampton institution that does not have a political agenda. It provides an inexpensive outlet for those residents interested in engaging in Olympic-sanctioned sports such as trap, skeet, and target shooting, and archery. The uniqueness of the club sports is that, unlike most others, they allow senior citizens to actively participate – – a much-needed outlet in our town.
The coalition is pandering to the outrage associated with the surge of gun violence by suggesting that the club somehow spawns such activity –- a disingenuous argument to try to rally support for its unjustified mission. Gun safety and proper controls are among the club's prime missions.
What are the real interests of the coalition? It certainly is not to build more hiking trails in the face of the abundant resources that are available in East Hampton. Nor is it to enhance the environmental landscape, which is and will be well protected. It smells like the "coalition" is a subterfuge backed by well-funded undisclosed principals with a hidden agenda lurking in the wings.
STEVEN E. NORTH
Not Normal
Amagansett
October 20, 2024
To the Editor,
Barry Raebeck in his excellent letter last week expressed most of my thoughts about the Maidstone Gun Club, but here are a few glosses (unnecessary numbering alert):
1. This is not normal political behavior. A town renewing a lease to an entity that permitted unsupervised shooters to use unauthorized weapons and hit nearby houses has more of a "Twin Peaks" or film-noir quality. There is some back story here about power and influence. Voldemort, what do you have to say about this?
2. This is not normal legal behavior. The town's cover story, that it has no choice but to renew the lease and refuses therefore to hear alternatives, is not honest. The town has complete discretion in this situation to decline to renew the gun club's lease.
3. Chief Michael Sarlo's defense of the gun club was surprising and inappropriate. A town chief of police should not take sides on divisive political matters, and Sarlo in this case even appears to be telling some East Hampton citizens -- those with homes near the gun club -- that they are lesser life forms who cannot expect his protection. Also, the argument that his officers need the gun club seems entirely specious. There are shooting ranges available in Westhampton, Brookhaven, Calverton, and elsewhere.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Alternative Culture
East Hampton
October 18, 2024
Dear David,
It is with sorrow that I follow the concerted effort to destroy the Maidstone Gun Club. I have had the pleasure to have been in East Hampton since Stephen Hand's Path was a dirt road and almost every store was locally owned. Even though I started as a weekender, I have been honored to count as close friends those whose families have lived and worked here for generations. I have operated upon and given eulogies for permanent residents who have been part of the fabric of East Hampton -- the fabric which, judging by Star articles, we are trying to preserve.
Why then is East Hampton trying to destroy perhaps the only vestige of a refuge for those who have lived here for generations? If safety or pollution is a true concern, let's try to solve that problem to the satisfaction of an independent expert. If alternative land use of gun club land is a goal, then please have concern for the alternative culture of those who treasure East Hampton as something other than a suburb.
JON KORN, M.D.
Morally Incorrect
East Hampton Village
October 19, 2024
Dear David,
My earnest wish for the upcoming national election is that the generation of first-time voters fully understand that voting is a right and a privilege afforded by our democratic form of government.
It is appropriate for each of us to reflect on the trials and tribulations that our government has endured during the journey year to date. May we never forget those precious souls, men and women, who made the ultimate sacrifice in defending the fiber of our blessed and beautiful footprint we identify as the United States of America.
My professional years were spent in public service. First, as a police·officer for 24 years. Then, unexpectedly, I was encouraged to seek elective office. It was an exciting challenge I accepted. The result was personally humbling. I remained in office for almost three decades. During that time, I learned the importance of trust, open communication, benevolence, and respect for the opinions of others. For the record, I am registered as an independent.
Let me now share my thoughts about the importance of this election. Fast-forward to the present moment, and the fragile pulse that our country is experiencing given the candidacy of Donald J. Trump as Republican candidate for president. Of all the potential candidates the Republican Party could possibly muster, he was chosen. He is a convicted felon under New York State criminal statute. Place that alongside his desire to achieve re-election to our nation's highest office. How extremely sad and morally incorrect.
He hijacked the Republican Party, obtaining the nomination by pulling the rug out from under party leadership. It has been said by many persons of note that Donald Trump is narcissistic, arrogant, and an in-your-face individual. He defies adequate description as a member of the human species. There is only one person that matters to him: Donald J. Trump. Everyone else, inclusive of his nuclear family, is expendable.
Donald Trump aligns himself with -- and appears in awe of -- those who are dictators and-or authoritarians. His ambition is to have consummate power and control, which is quite the opposite of our democratic foundation and course of governing. "Of the people, by the people, and for the people" is what Abraham Lincoln famously said in his Gettysburg Address. It still holds true today.
As a sidebar, I suggest reading an article titled "The Patriot" by Gen. Mark Milley, which appeared in the November 2023 issue of The Atlantic. The essence of the article is, What does a general do when the commander in chief undermines the Constitution?
America is at a point in our democracy that will determine the course we chart in the years ahead: either by democracy or authoritarian means.
Too much is at stake. The Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket must prevail, not only for unity but for the preservation of democracy in this great country.
Respectfully,
PAUL F. RICKENBACH
Mr. Rickenbach was the mayor of East Hampton Village. Ed.
Critical Issue
Wainscott
October 21, 2024
To the Editor,
Nothing is more important to the East End of Long Island than clean water. This November, we have an opportunity to create a significant and stable source of funding for Suffolk County to continue to fund drinking-water protection, land acquisition, and the upgrading of antiquated septic systems and sewers. All registered Suffolk County voters are eligible to vote on this critical issue. If approved, Proposition 2 will benefit East Hampton tremendously. Our near-shore waters such as Georgica Pond, which have suffered from algal blooms and fish kills, can continue to improve by a scaled-up program of septic-system upgrades. Wastewater from traditional septic systems is one of the largest sources of nitrogen entering our drinking and near-shore waters and is the trigger that causes harmful algal blooms.
I urge everyone to vote yes on Proposition 2, the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act.
Sincerely,
JONATHAN M. WAINWRIGHT
President
Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, Inc.
Do Something
Springs
October 14, 2024
To the Editor,
A letter to the editor dated Oct. 7, "Not a Wedding," provided a disturbing image of a Trump parade blasting horns as it rode through Amagansett and being met with profanity from a bystander. I appreciate the writer's focus on "Uniting the States of America" and I, too, have begun to wonder if this is even remotely possible.
However, shouldn't our goal right now be to ensure our democracy will survive?
I listened to a journalist, Jonathan Alter, speak on a news show this morning and he made me seriously think about a question I have been struggling with during this presidential election cycle: "What can I do?"
I realized that I am not helpless and all is not hopeless. I am not supporting a party or a platform; I am supporting democracy and rejecting dictatorship, hatred, and retribution. I cannot support Donald J. Trump, who, I feel, has no commitment to our country or to preserving our democracy. A democracy many who came before us fought for and even died for.
Presidents such as John F. Kennedy and George H.W. Bush fought in World War II; Senator John McCain fought and was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, and the crosses at Normandy represent the thousands who gave their lives so we could remain a free and democratic country.
My own grandfather fought and was wounded in World War I; my father and father-in-law served in World War II; my brother-in-law fought and was wounded in the Vietnam War, and my great-great grandfather, Albert Benjamin Smith, a civilian, while under fire, raised the American flag in Old Town, San Diego, during the Mexican-American War.
All these men were fighting for a democracy they believed in and cherished. Our democracy is now threatened; how can we do nothing?
I cannot fight in a war, nor do I want to, but I can stand up for democracy. I can make my choice known by having a yard sign; wearing a pin; contributing to candidates I believe will fight for the democratic values I hold dear and help with mailings and phone banks. I can pursue meaningful political discussions about the very real threats to our democracy and write letters to the editor to express my opinions with the hope that others will listen.
Shouting at each other is no longer an option. We need to reject hatred and fear. We must all "do something" now, no matter how small. The future of our democracy depends on us.
DONNA WAGNER
Honor and Remember
Patchogue
October 15, 2024
To the Editor,
I am writing to honor and remember my beloved partner of 48 years; Dennis John Bennett, born in the house he lived in most of his life on Three Mile Harbor Road. Born Oct. 10, 1928, and died Oct. 25, 2023. He is very missed and very loved. Rest in peace, my love.
LOREE GAMBINO
Wildflower Meadows
East Hampton
October 20, 2024
Dear David,
I attended a most interesting and informative talk this Sunday morning. It wasn't in church, though, for many of us, nature and the planet is our church. That's why we're trying to save it. The panel of speakers took place at the Nature Conservancy on 114, a most peaceful place with gorgeous photographs of wildlife on the walls. The owl photo grabbed me the most. Such a time for wisdom, hmm? The event was hosted by ChangeHampton and the speakers were most knowledgeable about all things sustainable, nontoxic, native grown, and beautiful regarding how we live in a symbiotic relationship with our landscapes, our yards, and even each other. There's so much possibility. Like soil, pollinator gardens, wildflower meadows, and even clover, the bane of many a Hamptonite's existence, apparently.
This crowd was not interested in pristine golf courses and privet hedges and the perfect lawn and the heck with everybody else. This was about reminding people that what you do to your lawn and property is innately what you do to all of our drinking water and groundwater. It's all connected, as are we, even in a time so many are miles apart politically and how we choose to engage, civilly or not. It's always refreshing to know we have choices. We don't have to do what we always did, every day's a school day, a fresh start. If it's harmful to birds and bees and water then we lose, too, and the whole shebang -- planet Earth is doomed. But it doesn't have to be, if we consider a future for others rather than slam the barn door shut and say, "Too bad, I got mine." So picture a meadow, go see the garden at town hall. Don't buy the lawn chemicals. Vote yes to protect our groundwater on Election Day. But, most of all, imagine we can live in harmony with both nature and ourselves. One has everything to do with the other. After all, "The earth is what we all have in common" -- Wendell Berry.
Hopefully,
NANCI LAGARENNE
Radical Ideology
Montauk
October 21, 2024
Dear David,
Do parents have the right to make decisions for their children or do politicians in Albany get the right to control our children?
We are finding out that a proposal written in a word-salad form would add a new language to the state's version of the Bill of Rights.
Proposal 1 would undermine religious child and adult sports, schools, hospitals, and even our churches.
Those who wrote this so-called Equal Rights Amendment claim it is intended to protect the right to access an abortion. This proposal does nothing to ensure "equal rights," nor does it have anything to do with the legality of abortion in New York.
Voters only need to read the wording, to see its actual purpose is harmful to our children.
This language, if adopted, would prohibit discrimination based upon gender identity or gender expression. This language would transform the laudable and longstanding antidiscrimination article in the State Constitution into a legal weapon that would force institutions across state -- public and private, religious and secular -- to accommodate the most radical forms of gender ideology.
Activists and politicians are loudly saying that this constitutional amendment is key to protecting abortion, however, this is not true. This amendment doesn't mention abortion at all. Truth: the threat to parental rights, including our right to protect our children, from radical transgender ideology.
BEA DERRICO
Hair on Fire
Springs
October 21, 2024
Dear David,
I have been puzzled by the plethora of yard signs warning that we need to "Protect Girls' Sports." I had no idea that girls sports were in danger (other than the G.O.P.'s hatred of Title IX -- which affords girls the same access to sports as the boys have). One need only look at the success the U.S. women's soccer team has enjoyed in contrast to the dismal record the men have recorded.
It turns out that the warning call is just another Republican lie -- this time being foisted on voters by the New York State Republican Party. It wants voters to believe that voting for Proposition 1 on our ballot this November would end girls sports. It urges voters to vote "no" to the proposition.
Proposition 1 offers broad constitutional protection to a wide swath of New York citizens. As now written, the New York State Constitution contains protections only against discrimination based on one's race, creed, and religion. Proposition 1 would amend the New York State Constitution by adding protections for New Yorkers against discrimination based on national origin, age, disability, and sex, including their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. It would also add protection for the right to reproductive health care services such as contraception and abortion.
Any such expansion of protection from discrimination sets Republicans' hair on fire. So, not surprisingly, the New York G.O.P. urges voters to oppose Proposition 1. Why? Not for any real reason. Instead it claims the amendment would allow "male" transgender athletes to invade girls sports.
Instead of offering solutions to challenges facing the entirety of New York State, the state Republican Party imagines a threat to girls sports as the crucial issue to urge voters to defeat Proposition 1. One would think that there has been a wholesale invasion of girls sports by boys claiming to be transgender. Well, that is a complete fabrication. Researchers estimate the nationwide number of transgender athletes competing to be fewer than 100; N.C.A.A. statistics estimate that of some 500,000 college athletes, 40 are transgender.
Its transparent effort to divert voters' attention furthers the G.O.P.'s goal to stigmatize the L.G.B.T.Q. population. In addition, its opposition furthers the G.O.P.'s war on women, here at the state level. Defeating Proposition 1 is another piece of the G.O.P.'s relentless attack on women's reproductive rights after the overturn of Roe v. Wade -- making a farce of the G.O.P.'s claim to be the protector of women's rights.
And don't look to our congressman, Nick LaLota, for protection. A Trump toady, Mr. LaLota is a staunch supporter of the strictest abortion bans. "Anybody but Nick" should be a campaign slogan -- fortunately we have an answer: a much better-qualified candidate in John Avlon.
Early voting starts this week! Get in line early.
Sincerely,
BRUCE COLBATH
Better Off
East Hampton
October 21, 2024
Dear David,
I am writing this letter because I feel it is necessary to do everything I can to try to save this great republic with the election on Nov. 5. As I've written before, the large majority of people in this town and this state are extremely liberal, and it is likely that the state's electors will go to Kamala, although even that is not a certainty. But there are many down-ballot races that are less certain, and many readers of this paper vote in New York City and the metropolitan area.
Personally, I do not like Trump's style of bragging and exaggerating. However, I feel that the country was much better off during his term before the Covid-19 epidemic hit. There were not tens of millions of illegal migrants welcomed into the country, and all the taxpayer money being used to give them housing, health care, schooling, and other services. We are a nation that welcomes immigrants, but they must go through the legal procedures in place to handle them. The prices of goods across the spectrum were much lower before almost four years of the Biden-Harris policies. Although the rate of inflation has been lowered, the real cost of living is still much higher, and Kamala has not presented any valid plan to bring it down. The way the crime rate in the country is reported is questionable at best. The F.B.I. recently revised the rate from an annual decline to an annual increase. There were no new wars during the Trump administration.
Kamala speaks in platitudes and talking points, and she delivers word salads when she in not on a teleprompter. Her campaign and the corporate media have done their best to help her avoid real scrutiny, and to change her from being the least popular politician to magically becoming a great savior. She has flip-flopped on most of her past policies in order to do anything to get elected. In other words, she has revealed her phoniness.
In closing, I hope that despite your feelings about Trump's personality, and your prior party loyalty, that you will think clearly about this and vote to get the country back to a better place.
JON HOWARD
We Are Not Enemies
East Hampton
October 21, 2024
To the Editor,
For many decades I traveled the country (often rural) visiting manufacturing companies and I lived in either New York or Chicago. While sometimes the business situations were challenging, the personal relations were not. And we often became friends.
With the election upon us, we must hold dear the notion that we are not enemies but all fortunate members of the same country.
Can we all agree on this?
TOM MACKEY
This Is War
Springs
October 17, 2024
To the Editor,
Well, in a letter just last week, I said I would be reluctant to use the pages of The Star to comment on national issues. But here I am. In your Oct. 17 letters section, there was this comment on the Middle East conflict:
"It has become obvious in the past year that neither King David, King Solomon, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, nor Yitzhak Rabin has ever killed as many innocent women and children as has your hero, Benjamin Netanyahu. Obviously not satisfied with murdering 42,000 civilians in Gaza, he is now murdering thousands in Lebanon."
That is intolerable. There is a long, complex history of Israel's development, nationhood, and attempts to negotiate justice with those Arab residents who will agree -- or not -- to become full-fledged Israeli citizens with all religious freedom.
But a recent New York Times story on a trove of Hamas meeting notes recovered from the tunnels reports that for two years Hamas plotted and planned an attack on Israel's military and civilians. Notes were kept. Hamas hoped that Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah would join the attack. The hope was that the attack would draw Iran and Lebanon into an all-out war to (for the fourth time) exterminate the Jewish nation.
It did not succeed. Islamist Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas are all franchises of the Muslim Brotherhood. (Ayatollah Khamenei visited and conferred with the Egyptian Brotherhood years before taking over Iran.)
Without allies, just promises, Hamas unleashed an attack on Israeli bases and civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. The object was murder and outrage (rape); 2,700 were killed; some 200 taken hostage.
Now the essential point: This was a declaration of war. The murder, rape, and kidnap had no objective but incitement of war. What could Hamas expect?
This undeclared war, its goal made perfectly clear by the slogan "From the river to the sea," was to begin the fourth war to exterminate Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu, in my view, responded with courage and determination, including against the pressure of the Biden-Harris administration to "make peace," "begin negotiations," and "initiate a two-state solution."
Mr. Netanyahu responded that this was war (what greater casus belli would you demand?) and the Hamas leadership and Hamas fighters must be eliminated. How else to secure Israel against a repeat? Keep fighting until Hamas, hiding among schools, hospitals, residences, was defeated.
Iran and Hezbollah, as promised to Hamas, entered the war to divert Israel, distract attention, and up the stakes. Israel responded, but focused relentlessly on the Hamas leadership, troops -- the attackers in this war.
Wars have tragic civilian casualties. Yes, "women and children." In every war, they are the majority, but especially when the tactics of Hamas are to embed themselves among civilians -- schools, hospitals. The goal is to multiply civilian casualties. To win world opinion among the naïve. War entails civilian casualties.
Mr. Netanyahu has been an outstanding leader among nations. He has said: They attacked with 2,700 murders, with rapes, with kidnaps -- hostages now murdered after a year of imprisonment. The torture of their families.
This is war. Defeat Hamas. Their allies, Hezbollah, Iran, committed long term to "elimination of the Zionist state."
For America? Israel is the only Western nation in the Western march into the Middle East. It upholds every Age of Enlightenment value: reason and science, individualism, religious tolerance, democracy, the rule of law, universalism, and much more.
As Israel's consistency in those values has attracted Middle East states prepared to accept and benefit from Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood has panicked.
And so, most probably, the murderous aggression against Israel because the great power in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, opponent of Iran, was preparing to make peace with Israel. Intolerable to the Muslim Brotherhood, to Islamism.
WALTER DONWAY
How Wars End
Bridgehampton
October 17, 2024
To the Editor,
Whew, it is really impossible to read what some have to say in these letters and not fact-check, and only rely on massive personal bias and distortion! And their own slant!
Statement in this week's letters: "Obviously not satisfied with murdering 42,000 civilians in Gaza, he is now murdering thousands in Lebanon."
After Israel gave Gaza all the hydroponic farms and many various factories and functioning businesses -- and after offering a two-state situation five times -- Hamas used all the billions given them to build a country to create weaponry and structure to destroy Israel and kill millions of innocent Jews. All the Gaza population, if not participating, agreed with the actions.
After Hamas and Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets a year at [Israel], and killed numerous Israelis over 60 years, we now are told that 42,000 "innocent civilians" in Gaza have been murdered!
There were no murderous genocidal Hamas fighters as the true targets?! And maybe a couple of thousand of their human shields who may or may have not been innocent civilians?!
There are seven genocidal wars going on in Africa. There are Sunni/Shiite wars in 25 Arab countries killing untold numbers . . . and no one cares! There are thugs and dictators all over the world and no one cares! But Netanyahu trying to save a population and religion and the second most productive and giving country in the world is the bad guy in this writer's fantasy mind! Check out the Nobel prizes.
Did anyone here care about the following? It is how wars end!
"Estimates of German civilians killed only by Allied strategic bombing have ranged from around 350,000 to 500,000. Estimates of civilian deaths due to the flight and expulsion of Germans, Soviet war crimes, and the forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union are disputed and range from 500,000 to over 2 million." (Wikipedia.)
Our atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people.
LOUIS MEISEL