Letters to the Editor | Aug. 3, 2025

A recent New York Times article identifies the major role of two right-wing extremists in Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet who oppose any ceasefire for the war in Gaza. The Inquirer reports that recent humanitarian actions by Jordan and the United Arab Emirates show that immediate action is desperately needed to relieve the starvation conditions of the native population of Gaza. Much more is needed, including healthcare and shelter.

Prolonging war in Gaza beyond any resolution seems to reflect the extremist views of two far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s cabinet: Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Neither has any regard for the lives of Palestinians, in Gaza or the West Bank. The two hold the key to Netanyahu’s control of the Knesset. No peace process can succeed until they can be confronted with their racist view that Palestinian lives don’t matter.

Neville R. Kallenbach, Philadelphia

Nobody can look at the pictures from Gaza and not feel ashamed that leadership in that region has permitted this to happen — including Hamas, which has made aid distribution more deadly and continues to hold Israelis hostage — and Primer Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose callous, selfish political survival is exacerbating the situation and clouding Israel’s ability to put a stop to the murderous Hamas. One must still ask, however, why does the world seem to care about this situation only when the Israelis are involved? Strife in Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia resulted in starvation orders of greater magnitude, yet there was barely a peep from the opinion pages of newspapers, much less anything resembling a protest on college campuses. Is it ignorance of these grim, recurrent events? Or is it simply that the world judges only when Israel is involved?

Matthew A. White, Philadelphia

When will it ever end? The destruction of Gaza goes on and with it a daily increase in the death count. There is no sanctuary, not even in hospitals or houses of worship. Instead of eliminating the forces of terror as the Israeli government claims it is doing, it is sowing the seeds for generations of anger, frustration, and revenge. And, while all of this is taking place in Gaza, the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are confronted with attacks from Israeli settlers with either overt or covert support of the Israeli authorities.

We Americans aid and abet all of this. Israel’s weapons of mass destruction are made and purchased in America. This has been and continues to be the case no matter who’s in charge, Democrat or Republican. And our silence as citizens is taken as an endorsement.

So, let’s break the silence. It is not un-American or antisemitic to protest and demand the end to the violence in Israel/Palestine and our nation’s support of that violence. It is not beatifying Hamas or ignoring the corruption of the Palestinian Authority to call out Israel’s responsibility in the decades long deadly conflict in that land. It is not un-American to acknowledge that we are involved in that conflict and that we are at least a part of the answer to the question, when will it ever end?

William B. Lane, Glen Mills

The recent Inquirer editorial, “A study in cruelty,” points out that most immigrant detainees have no criminal record. Those who have waited years to come to the U.S. legally feel illegal crossings are unfair, but we must consider that many people entering through our southern border are fleeing wars, persecutions, and economic upheaval. They cannot wait years. That is why Congress must prioritize comprehensive immigration reform that respects human dignity. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids have resulted in businesses closing while care facilities, farms, the hospitality sector, and construction sites cannot fill positions. This is an illogical and self-defeating policy. Truth is, the immigrant workforce is needed.

The Big Beautiful Bill provided $45 billion for expanding detention capacity and $30 billion for enforcement and 10,000 additional ICE agents. Instead, these funds could provide personnel to fast-track those with no violent convictions toward green cards and/or work permits. Families wouldn’t be torn apart and expanding the dehumanizing detention centers would be unnecessary. We are all here today because someone risked everything for a better life. Eliminating the terror, the economic disruptions, and the waste, yes, waste, we could focus on other pressing issues at home and abroad. We could counter the fear and cruelty besieging our society.

Catherine Poynton, Havertown

Thank you for your thorough coverage of the immigration crisis in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. I have had the blessing to work among the immigrant community in New Jersey for more than 40 years. This is a state that both prosecutes criminals and protects the rights of law-abiding residents. The Immigrant Rights Directive of 2018 forged a good relationship between local police and the community. Immigrants can trust police, seek their help when needed, and are willing witnesses to crimes they’ve observed. Now we have masked agents pulling immigrants into unmarked cars. Masked “to protect their families” while they fracture the families of others.

The coming gubernatorial election places the state at a crossroads. We will either choose to maintain our commitment to respecting the rights of all law-abiding residents or we will choose to abolish the Immigrant Rights Directive and embrace fully the commitment to mass deportation of all undocumented residents regardless of years of residence, contribution to our welfare and economy, and number of children who are U.S. citizens. Voters in New Jersey are not just observers of the present tragedy. We are agents who will choose the future direction of our state.

S. Veronica Roche, Westmont

The COVID-19 crisis has mercifully faded into the background but there are two critical lessons involving history that are well worth remembering. First, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Second, history may not necessarily repeat, but it does rhyme. What worries and scares me greatly is the ongoing behavior of the Trump administration — and especially the actions being taken by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — to deconstruct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory board and to defund basic research into so many dread diseases. They are ignoring the lessons that history has so painfully taught us. While COVID may no longer pose a grave threat to humanity, some other virus may come along that equals the devastation that it wrought or even surpasses it. The pertinent question is, if (or more accurately, when) a new virus comes along, will this country be prepared to act rapidly and decisively? Unfortunately, the answer appears to be no, we will not.

Ken Derow, Swarthmore

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