ISRAEL-GAZA

What Israel means for Jews

Hamas could end this war today if they laid down their weapons and released the hostages.

Israel, a country the size of New Jersey, is fighting a multi-front war with Hamas to the south, and Hezbollah from Lebanon to the north. Iran is backing Hezbula, and now Syria, Yemen, the Houthis and Iraq are all involved.

Israel is fighting a cynical enemy that strategically maximizes the deaths of its own civilians to win. Hamas spent years building a massive military tunnel network under its civilian population. They conduct military operations from schools, hospitals and neighborhoods because they know Israel will try to minimize civilian deaths.

Hamas also knows that mass casualties will ultimately unravel the sympathy Jews have from the Holocaust, by claiming that Israel is committing its own genocide. This is a deliberate war tactic, and it’s working. The more civilian casualties, the more likely Israel is to lose the support of its allies, and ultimately the war.

This is a new and unprecedented war tactic that we must not unwittingly support, as Douglas Feith wrote Oct. 24 in The National Review in “Hamas’s Strategy Depends on Maximizing Palestinian Civilian Casualties.”

Jews have always lived throughout the Middle East, but in the last century, Jews and Christians have been mostly driven out. In 1937, there were about 63,550 Jews living in Egypt. Today there are about 100 Jews left, according to worldjewishcongress.org.

Tunisia had 105,000 Jews around 1948, and was down to 1,000 in 2019, according to the Jewish Virtual Library. Iraq had 130,000 Jews in 1949, and now has fewer than 10.

Turkey, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Syria and Saudi Arabia all tell a similar story. Today, there are 126 majority-Christian nations in the world, and 50 Muslim-majority countries. For Jews, there is only Israel.

Celina Yarkin

VASHON CARE CLOSET

What a senseless act

On Monday, March 25th, sometime in the afternoon between 1:30 and 4:45, a person with bolt cutters cut the locks at the Vashon Care Closet (the barns on the Lutheran church property).

The Care Closet provides for islanders in need of medical equipment, such as wheelchairs, walkers, shower chairs, crutches and canes, and personal hygiene supplies, such as Depends and incontinent care items. We are a lending organization — everything is free, and most of the equipment we lend out has been donated to us.

The items that were stolen were a laptop, which was donated to the Care Closet by the school district, and a toolbox with tools that was donated to us by the Tool Library. There is nothing of street value in those barns. Please know that we have neither money nor medicine at the Care Closet. We are happy to provide you with medical supplies and equipment if you call us at 206-473-8715, or via our website at www.vashoncarenetwork.org.

We are all volunteers at the Care Closet, and this event has been most heartbreaking to us all.

Doreen Higgins, Care Closet Volunteer

Liz Illg, Board President