Jay Miller: Perspective important when considering the Middle East

To the editor:

I found it very interesting to read the letter on Nov. 6 about the Mideast war violating "Quaker values."

I will caveat this by saying I am not Jewish. The letter-writer seems to only focus on the "disproportionate assault" by Israel on Palestinians. First, perhaps we should say "counterattack" instead of assault.

A few things must be made clear and are not readily available in the media:

1. There are children still being held hostage (unless they have died in captivity) as a result of the Oct. 7 attack. This includes a baby who has not lived over half of his life as a hostage.
   Why is the writer, and the world, not calling for the release of at least this child and other children as a prerequisite for moving forward? One would have to ask: What would I do if that were my child/grandchild?

2. Israel has been out of Gaza since 2005 but provides them with full infrastructure. Israel is providing funds, which are mostly misused to buy weapons.

3. Bill Clinton spoke last week — you can watch the video for yourself. Even the architect of the two-state solution admits Palestine deliberately puts their children and civilians in harm's way (as a tactic).

4. Hamas rules Gaza — read its charter. They do not wish for peace. Their actual charter includes the annihilation of Israel and Jews.

5. The land in question — Israel — is not being "colonized" by Jews. There are multiple mosques built over synagogues. Many eons ago, Muslims colonized this land. They have uncovered such synagogues.

6. It is worth noting that in the UN division plan of 1947, there was no plan for a "Palestinian Arab State" (I put that in parentheses because the original use of the term "Palestinian" was actually a reference to Jews). There would be no Gaza as such. It was divided into Jordan and Israel. Jordan didn’t like the results, so they started a war, with other Arab countries joining them. Israel won.

7. There are almost no Jews living in 22 Arab countries. There is one predominantly Jewish country in the world. Last night, a large number of Jews were attacked in Amsterdam in a planned attack by Muslims. These types of events in the world, and the lack of world support, cause the response. The fact that Hamas only values their civilians as collateral is the reason for the proportion of deaths.

It is further worth noting that Israel has effectively and precisely eliminated the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. They predominantly target military targets. The civilian death toll is, again, orchestrated by Hamas.

Jay Miller
Conway