When I read that Northampton’s City Council was considering passing a resolution demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and lessening support for Israel; I was concerned that the council had been caught up in the bullying and misrepresentations about the war. I thought it important for the council to be thoughtful and not cave in to a herd mentality.

That the council decided to take a stance on the war was itself concerning as I am aware that their bailiwick is local not international. Furthermore, the community is divided on the issue. My councilor asserted the resolution had to be passed for the sake of peace. I argued that understanding the problems is crucial before trying to fix them. I questioned my councilor whether they could differentiate between Hamas and Hezbollah. They couldn’t.

Since very few individuals were aware of the resolution’s contents prior to the meeting, I hoped for lengthy discussion. In Councilor Marissa Elkins’ words, how can we expect others to form an opinion when we ourselves were only introduced to the resolution a few hours ago? I tried to voice my concerns, but Councilors Rachel Maiore and Alex Jarrett said that there was insufficient time. They even suspended the charter rules to force through the vote the same night.

Thus, I write to speak out against the rush to judgment, the horrific comparisons and misrepresentations relied upon, such as:

■Comparing Hitler’s extermination camps to Israel’s targeted bombings.

■Equating the act of dropping leaflets to warn Gazan civilians to evacuate before an impending attack, with deceptive tactics used in concentration camps to trick Jews into entering gas chambers.

And to shed some light by presenting some omitted facts:

Upon Israel’s establishment, there were only 160,000 Palestinian Arabs within its borders; today there are over two million with full citizenship rights. This is 11 times the number in 1948. Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel coexist peacefully and both thrive. There were instances of Palestinian Arabs risking and losing their lives to save Jewish citizens on Oct. 7.

Nor is the obstacle to achieving peace the alleged mistreatment of Palestinians by Israel, but rather the cradle to grave indoctrination and propaganda spread by Hamas which is accepted by the naive as truth. Funded by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Work Agency) it in turn receives most of its funding from citizens of the U.S. The indoctrination demonizes Israel and Jews. Some of the money is used to pay lifetime pensions to the family of terrorists especially those who murdered Jews. It is called “pay to slay.” Therefore, only deprogramming, as was done with the fanaticism in Germany and Japan after WWII can bring peace.

Most every death in Gaza is mourned by the people of Israel, who despite being traumatized, feel sorrow when seeing a bereft child or family member among the estimated 30,000 Palestinians killed, including what the Israel Defense Forces claims is an estimated 10,000 Hamas terrorists. In contrast, many Gazans owing to their indoctrination celebrated the Oct. 7 slaughter. One terrorist even boasted to his family about murdering an entire Jewish family during the attack.

As to Israel’s so-called apartheid, there are few Jews residing in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, or any other Muslim country today. Nearly one million Middle Eastern Jews (Mizrahi) migrated to Israel following its establishment because of continuous violence and prejudice against them. They constitute the majority of the Jewish population in Israel today.

In 1938, there were seven million Jews living in Europe. Six million of them were murdered during the Holocaust, only one million survived. Today, the world’s Jewish population is around 15 million, almost catching up to the 16 million it was in 1938. Prior to the Holocaust, it was unimaginable to think that such atrocities could happen, but now we know they can.

On Oct. 7, Hamas, the elected representative for Gaza, made it clear that their threats to eliminate Israel and Jews were real. One thousand two hundred Jewish men, women and children were murdered, raped, burned, and tortured, 250 taken as hostages, 5,000 seriously wounded. Subsequently about 300 soldiers have been killed in Gaza. Yet these numbers were not mentioned in the City Council resolution. Nor the hundreds of thousands displaced within Israel.

The obstacle to a two-state solution is not Israel, as claimed, but the Palestinians’ demand for a right of return for all Palestinians. While there were about one million Palestinians in 1938, today there are close to 14 million. In 1948, Gaza had a population of 70,000, which has grown to over two million. Palestinians have one of the highest population growth rates in the world. Paid for in large part by America. This has been called a demographic war. If implemented it would mean the end of a Jewish homeland, not a peaceful solution.

No country more than Israel wants an end to the war and real peace.

Barry Roth lives in Northampton.