Hamas rebuttal

To the editor:

While I respect Ms. Shinkosky’s point of view and her right to express it (last week’s “Gaza War” letter), I feel a rebuttal is in order.

From her assertions, one might be inclined to surmise that President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken choregraphed the awful mess in Gaza for their political benefits. I would desribe such exhortations as a course in Gaslighting 101.

Hamas terrorists engaged in unspeakable horrors. That’s not to say that Palestinian civilians were not also unwitting victims of the results of Hamas’s atrocities. But from my experience, trying to politicize the events that occurred is not only a disservice to the victims but also a lame attempt to shift focus from some very serious issues.

Like it or not, there is a global terror threat. It’s very likely that many of these events involve proxies supported by Iran. My mother worked for Eisenhower at the end of World War II and provided a significant history with respect to how these kinds of events could escalate and the costs for not nipping them in the bud.

I’m reminded of the old Fram Oil Filter commercial in which a mechanic says, “You can pay me now or pay me later.”

With world events, whether in Ukraine or the Middle East or wherever, we either act ourselves and encourage our allies to stamp out egregious conduct or we suffer the consequences.

My grandmother, Lucile Haviland (of the linage that Haviland, Kansas, was named after) was a peaceful conservative person, literally of Quaker descent.

But she had a saying: “Sometimes you have to treat a bully like a bully.”

Bottom line, we can either be part of the solution or we can take the easy road and just stand by and let things get worse.

Hopefully, things in the Middle East will settle down. More hopefully, some of the Middle Eastern countries will step up and create some order in their own back yards. And while any kind of ceasefire would clearly be desirable, Hamas cannot get a pass for the atrocities that it has committed.

Like most of us, I don’t have the answer. But I darn well will not throw stones at any leaders who are making an effort to contain this problem before it reaches our shores.

Bottom line, we need to stay focused on the big picture.

Willis Lamm
Stagecoach, Nevada