To the editor: So, more than 15 months after Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel, a cease-fire is reached. After all this time, President Biden now claims, “At long last, I can announce a cease-fire, and a hostage deal, has been reached between Israel and Hamas.”
Sorry, Mr. President. Your cease-fire guidelines were presented months and months ago but failed to bring the two sides together. Now, with Donald Trump ready to enter the White House, a deal is reached. Coincidence?
This story points out two salient facts. The first is that Hamas learned the hard way that you can’t mess with the Israel Defense Forces. The second is, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “In politics, nothing happens by accident.”
Joseph Lea, Mission Viejo
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To the editor: The relentless anguish of the Palestinians and the colossal magnitude of the calamity in Gaza are beyond anything seen in human history.
Life conditions are deplorable. Hospitals are destroyed. Food is scant. Clean drinking water is nonexistent. Public health is shattered to pieces. Malnutrition, vaccine-preventable diseases and infections are rampant. Children, women and the elderly are deeply traumatized and need urgent medical, humanitarian and psychological assistance.
The international community has failed the people of Gaza. Let us hope that the cease-fire will pave the way toward a sustainable peace and to security in the region and the wider world.
Munjed Farid Al Qutob, London
