Letters to the Editor | Oct. 15, 2023

I have been silent all week, struggling to find words. None are sufficient. This is the first pogrom in my lifetime, and I am witnessing it live on TV. This is what my great-grandparents fled Europe to escape. This is people rampaging into homes, killing indiscriminately while shouting (and defaming) the name of their god. As much as I hate the Benjamin Netanyahu government (and I do) and the un-Jewish (by my terms) West Bank settlers, nothing they have done justifies this.

Some say, “Oh, what can you expect from a frustrated people?” We can expect a minimum level of humanity, but that we did not get. We can expect their “supporters” to condemn their actions and demand immediate release of the hostages, but that we did not get. Those expectations are doomed to remain unsatisfied. Instead, we will hear more condemnation of any actions the Israeli government takes. If only Hamas leadership thought as much about the lives of the people under their control as they think about killing Jews just because they are Jews.

What do I hope? I hope this war ends quickly with a minimum of additional deaths, but I do not expect this hope to be fulfilled. I hope there is a reckoning for this Israeli government’s unforgivable emphasis on protecting illegal West Bank settlements while ignoring the obvious signals from the Gaza border. I hope that the non-Jewish citizens of Israel remain safe and at peace. I hope that the Israeli electorate wakes up to the fact that the status quo is untenable. But none of those outcomes justifies or forgives the pogrom. Call it what it is and condemn it around the world.

Susan Katz Hoffman, Philadelphia

A U.S. House member’s plan to nominate Donald Trump to serve as speaker — and the willingness of other GOP representatives to endorse the idea — shows how some legislators hold the institution in contempt. After the failed Kevin McCarthy speakership, and the lack of meaningful work expected of the House in the foreseeable future, this plan is noteworthy for its shallowness. House ethics rules state that members, delegates, and resident commissioners under indictment for a felony should step aside from any leadership position until acquitted or found guilty of a lesser charge. It is unclear whether that would apply to Trump.

In any event, both Trump and his adulators would blow past the weak “should” in the rules without stopping. A House incapable of performing even rudimentary functions would not be helped by the speaker’s position being filled by a headstrong apprentice. Trump’s presidency marked him as a dishonest person with little understanding of or regard for the Constitution. The threatened nomination epitomizes the political theater marking the House. Citizens deserve more than a Congress masquerading as reality TV.

Stewart Speck, Ardmore

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