Merriam Ansara: Have we no sense of history or shame?

The stated goal of Israel in its war against Gaza is to root out Hamas, responsible for the cross-border attack in Israel that killed 1,200 civilians and captured 240 people as hostages, including old people and children.

Let me say that I most thoroughly condemn this action. But the destruction and mass murder brings to mind, inevitably for someone of my generation, another era, another war, another justification of destruction of villages and homes and murder of civilians.

“We destroyed the village in order to save it.” These were the words reportedly used by by an U.S. Army major on February 1968, following the destruction of the village of Ben Tre in Vietnam. The next month, in March 1968, 500 unarmed civilians were killed in My Lai and the village was destroyed. This is the history that comes to mind as I watch and read about the killing of 12,000 civilians in Gaza and the forcible displacement by bombs of 1.2 million people.

How do we, Americans of all faiths, including Jewish, watch, support and agree to send weapons to another army, another state committing these atrocities? Do we have no sense of history or of shame? Will this really root out Hamas? Or will it simply continue the destruction of a people who have for 75 years attempted in their majority to lead their lives in dignity and peace, on land where they too have lived for hundreds of years? Is there no other solution?

Merriam Ansara

Easthampton