Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

letter to the editor:

Columnist Kristof wrong about Israel

Nicholas Kristof is an editorialist who is capable of great moral clarity, but in “Leading through great loss,” his July 19 column on the Israel-Hamas conflict, Kristof inadvertently exposes his true feelings and in the process his antipathy toward Israel.

Kristof writes: “Look, when militants in Gaza fire rockets at Israel, then Israel has the right to respond, but with some proportionality.” Fine so far.

But then he continues, “More than 200 Gazans have been killed, three-quarters of them civilians … (while only) one Israeli has been killed.” In this caveat, Kristof implies that he would be happier if somewhere around 200 Israelis had also been killed, which is what his sense of proportionality calls for.

Perhaps he would feel better if the Israelis would decommission its Iron Dome rocket-defense system or weld shut the doors to its many bomb shelters. That would make for a fairer fight, right Nick?

So it’s OK to kill the terrorists who have attacked your nation without provocation, so long as proportionate numbers of Israelis are killed in the process. The number of dead is unimportant to Kristof. What is important is that each side share equally in the losses.

Kristof should think carefully about a regime that has vowed to destroy the state of Israel; teaches its children to hate and murder starting in kindergarten; hides rockets in mosques, schools and hospitals; and trains its adolescents to bomb, shoot and kidnap Israelis until the end of time — or at least until the handful of those still alive move to Canada or the United States.

What would Gen. George Patton have advised?

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy