OPINION:
It has become popular to say that Israel should respond to the Oct. 7 assault against its people in a “proportionate” way (“U.S. pressures Israel after hostage deaths; warships fend off Houthi drones in expanding conflict,” web, Dec. 17).
But we don’t really want that. We don’t really want Israel to be anywhere near proportionate to our own reaction 82 years ago to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked U.S. military targets, planes and ships, killing more than 2,400 Americans. The Japanese sent no soldiers ashore. They did not attack women or children.
Hamas, on the other hand, attacked no military targets. They only attacked men, women and children. Their only goal was to kill Jews.
By the end of World War II, the U.S. had firebombed Tokyo, and had dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We killed 2 million Japanese soldiers. That is 1,000 times as many Japanese killed as the Americans killed at Pearl Harbor. If Israel were to respond against Hamas in the same way the United States responded to the Japanese, it would mean 1 million people killed in Gaza.
Instead of telling Israel what it should do, we should be telling Hamas what it should do. To end this war, all Hamas has to do is to quit fighting. The terrorists must lay down their arms, release the hostages and show U.N. inspectors where all their rockets are so the weapons can be destroyed. This war could be over in mere hours.
The U.S. and our allies need to state — jointly and clearly — exactly what we expect of Hamas. We need to tell all the people of Gaza exactly what has to be done to bring a quick end to this war. Then, we and our allies need to enforce that. This calls for courageous, bold action by us and others.
Unfortunately, a weak and pathetic leader is hobbling us. I can only hope that somehow this kind of decisive American action is forthcoming anyway.
JIM FRENCH
Dakota, Illinois
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