Letter to The Washington Post

From: mberenhaus@comcast.net To: letters@washpost.com Cc: ombudsman@washpost.com Subject: letter to the editor Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:48:19 +0000
Dear Editor,

Linda Gradstein, in In Gaza, No Cash for Holiday - [Dec. 8, 2008], shares yet another human interest story on Hamas-controlled Gaza - source of now over 10,000 rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli citizens in the past eight years. In this one, as attacks on Israel increase and Hamas prepared to end its six-month truce, she speaks of Ali Hussein, who, with some of his salary, buys sweets for his four sons. Sweets are given to Gazan children typically to commemorate special events. This was most notably captured on film when 3,000 Americans were incinerated on Sept. 11, 2001 - sweets were everywhere. Gazan children also receive sweets when Israeli men, women and children are murdered by suicide bombers in pizza shops, hotels, and night clubs.

With all the rocket and mortar fire directed at them, the article reports that Israel still allows Gazans by the thousands into Israel for hospitalizations, to visit their family, and to go to holy sites. Contrast this to when Arabs had control of Jewish sites in the Old City of Jerusalem for 19 years. Israelis never fired a rocket or mortar but were denied access to their holy sites for the 19 years and every Old City synagogue was destroyed.

Michael Berenhaus