Regarding "Hold Israel accountable" by Sandra Oriel, June 1: Sandra Oriel ignores the fact that the Israeli navy took over five ships of the flotilla bound for Gaza on which the activists protested peacefully; there was no violence and nobody was hurt. But some of the passengers on the sixth ship mounted a violent resistance. They had bats, iron bars, knives. They assaulted every soldier as he slid down from the helicopter. The soldiers were under orders to not use their handguns unless their lives were in danger. Seven were wounded. Only then did they use their handguns and respond to the violent attack upon them.

The unfortunate loss of life was a direct result of the violence used by the extremists on the ship. A state, in a time of conflict, can impose an embargo, and carry out embargo activities in international waters. This allows the detention of civilian vessels trying to break the embargo.



Sandra Oriel should get her facts straight before condemning Israel for its actions regarding the so-called humanitarian flotilla. First, we don't know all the facts. We do know that a terrorist organization bent on destroying Israel rules Gaza and that Israel has intercepted ships carrying weapons for Hamas.

We need answers to these questions: What did a woman quoted by Al-Jazerra aboard the flotilla mean when she said "Right now we face two happy endings: either martyrdom or reaching Gaza?" Was someone spoiling for a fight? Why did the ships ignore repeated warnings from the Israeli navy to turn back or put into the Israeli port of Ashod, where supplies would be off loaded, inspected, and if humanitarian, be shipped to Gaza? Finally, it if had nothing to hide, why did only one ship resist Israeli attempts to board and inspect the ship? This was not a love boat.



On numerous occasions, the Hamas leaders have promised their Gaza electorate that they will work to exterminate all Jews. Broadcasts to the Gazans by Wallid Al-Rashudi, head of the Department of Islamic Studies at Saud University in Saudi Arabia, urged "Kill them one by one and don't even leave one."

Israel has a right to blockade potential arms deliveries to Gaza, just as President John F. Kennedy blockaded the potential delivery of arms, which threatened our existence, to Cuba. He did this without seeking the permission of the United Nations, and against the opposition of the usual U.S. pacifist "activists" of the left. Israel is allowing a large steady flow of peaceful shipments into Gaza, and this has been underreported by the press. Iran, now abetted by Turkey, is using the Gazans to further Iran's global nuclear ambitions. These are a looming threat to all of us.



Most Jews that I know, even the most starry-eyed liberals among them, are willing to devote the time to learn the facts before joining the masses in the their simple-minded demonization of Israel.

This was defiance, by a bunch of thoughtless activists, in breaching a legal blockade designed to keep weapons out of the hands of a terrorist group devoted to the destruction of Israel. There has been no lessening of humanitarian aid under the blockade, and all that was required was an inspection of the vessels to assure that no additional rockets be added to the many thousands that are directed at Israel.

Hamas now owns Gaza, and their stated objective is the destruction of Israel. The fools on those boats put themselves in the path of danger and among terrorists by choice and deserve absolutely no sympathy.



How to understand Israel's latest actions? If Israel were an adolescent, the diagnosis could be Oppositional/Defiant Disorder, if an adult, Narcissistic Personality Disorder (grandiosity, entitlement and lack of empathy). Lest I be hastily labeled a "self-hating Jew" (in the interest of obscuring critical thinking), consider that I am a "self-loving" Jew who seeks to hold Israel to the long-abandoned highest standards of Jewish values.

As the prophet Micah (a defender of the oppressed) instructed: "Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God" (6:1-8), and "... to beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. [We] shall no longer learn war" (3:9-12). Can the Israeli government and populace ever return to the instruction of every rabbi I have known (save one) to "not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you?"



Regarding Lola Roman's May 26 letter, "Legal entrants welcome": I cannot agree more! But I do have to add one thing. Terrorists and criminals have already crossed our southern border!

They are the many drug cartel members who poison our communities with drugs and gangs. They spread fear and show extreme violence to anyone who would get in their way, including our law enforcement officials. And although I agree that most immigrants are good, hard-working people, until these cartels are dealt with, the bad will continue to outweigh the good.

The very first paragraph of the Constitution says to "... establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense ..." and until we can secure our borders from these monsters, our state, as well as our federal government are, in effect, ignoring the Constitution. If the Founding Fathers didn't think that was important, they would not have put it in the first paragraph!