Letter of the Day: No balance

No balance

EDITOR: Don't read any further if you want faux balance about the violence Israel unleashed in response to years of rocket and mortar fire from Gaza, because there is no balance point between Israel's aim at weapons caches and Hamas' targeting of civilians.

There is no balance between a military that warns civilians by telephone, text and leaflet and one that launches indiscriminate aerial attacks.

There is no balance between Israel's building of defensive walls, fences, shelters, fortified schools and an anti-rocket missile system and an enemy that uses housing blocks and mosques to store weapons and shield launch sites.

There is no way to balance against those who celebrate the deaths of American civilians on 9/11, declare triumphantly from loudspeakers the bombing of a Tel Aviv bus at lunch hour, exhibit their dead as propaganda and who, on a street corner, murder supposed collaborators.

Soon, I hope, wiser leaders will create a true balance that pivots on celebration of coexistence, the only way to honor heartfelt desires for peace among Israelis and Palestinians, at last bringing the security and prosperity that cannot be gained by shredding flesh and smashing concrete.

ASHER R. SHEPPARD

Santa Rosa