Your March 6 editorial misses two critical points in its question “How did we get here?” For one, the issue is not whether to be sympathetic to Palestinian civilian suffering, but who is causing it. One can legitimately take issue with Israeli policy, but no one should argue that the cause of any civilian suffering or casualties is clearly Hamas and not Israel. That narrative should be first and foremost in any discussion about the conflict. It is clear from the facts on the ground that Israel takes more steps to protect Palestinian civilians while Hamas takes steps to put them in harm’s way, not to mention we should be strongly reminding anyone who labels Hamas as resistance fighters (and not properly as terrorists) what happened on Oct 7, 2023.
Additionally, we are losing ground on the narrative because of the influx of anti-Israel rhetoric (and money) into the intuitions of higher learning. We are not combating the false narratives and propaganda being leveled at the younger generations in college campuses. Many of our Jewish institutions are on the defensive when they should be on the offensive in promoting the factually correct narrative.
-Sonny Taragin, Baltimore
