Content warning: This article contains mention of war, sexual assault and death.

Dear Editor,

Reasonable people can certainly disagree about Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. But neither your readers nor The Daily Northwestern should be publishing as fact any information that contradicts known facts, as Ms. Wilson’s letter does.

Let’s start with the myth that opposition to a ceasefire — without any release of the 134 hostages (and bodies of dead hostages) still held by Palestinian terrorists — shows undue favoring of Israeli lives over Palestinian lives, as the writer claims.

Those of us who oppose calls for this kind of one-sided ceasefire are all too aware of the painful consequences of reaching a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. This is because Hamas has broken every ceasefire agreement since 2008 — most recently on Oct. 7, 2023.

Not only that, it is also clear that Israel is not the one standing in the way of a ceasefire. As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted this week, “The only thing standing between the Gazan people and a ceasefire is Hamas … It seems more interested in a regional conflict than it is in a ceasefire that would immediately improve the lives of the Palestinian people.”

As for the other misleading parts of the letter, let’s start with the basic facts:

On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists and their supporters broke an agreed ceasefire, invaded Israel and brutally raped and murdered 1,200 people, the majority of whom were innocent civilians,taking approximately 240 others hostage.

Some terrorists recorded and documented their atrocities and broadcast them for the world to see. Some posted videos showing hostages being paraded through the streets of Gaza, where they were further assaulted and spat upon. The victims and hostages included elderly and babies.

This attack furthered the stated goal of Hamas to remove Israel from the map and kill Jews. In fact, shortly after the attack, the leaders of Hamas publicly stated their intention to repeat Oct. 7 “again and again.”

Israel invaded Gaza both to root out and destroy the Hamas terrorists and to locate and recover the hostages.

As is the case in any war zone, Israel has killed both combatants and civilians. Yet while Israel mourns the tragic loss of innocent life, many members of Hamas, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, can be seen on video celebrating or praising these deaths as martyrs.

More importantly, at least one military expert who has taken a deep dive into the claimed casualty figures concluded that this has been the most responsible campaign of urban warfare conducted in the history of war.

According to John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute, “Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history — above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Contrary to Ms. Wilson’s hyperbole, Gazan civilians were not “slaughtered”, nor were the victims of the Oct. 7 attack merely “deaths.” Also, it is misleading to equate, as she does, the documented brutal rape of innocent Israeli and other women on Oct. 7 with the alleged rapes of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers, which, as to allegations of rape at al-Shifa Hospital in January, were admittedly fabricated.

More importantly, any IDF soldier found to have committed rape will face serious consequences. What a contrast from the Hamas rapists, who were cheered by their supporters in Gaza, Iran and the United States as bold “freedom fighters.”

Ms. Wilson claims that Israel is holding thousands of Palestinians as “hostages.” This demonstrates either ignorance or an intentional misuse of the term. There is nothing remotely similar between Israel capturing Hamas fighters as prisoners of war in Gaza and taking into custody Palestinians convicted or suspected of terrorist activities in Gaza and the West Bank and Hamas taking as hostages innocent women, children, babies and seniors on Oct. 7.

As part of its campaign against terrorist attacks in Gaza and other parts of Israel dating back decades, the IDF has captured and detained thousands of fighters (some of whom simply surrendered), terrorists and suspected terrorists. Some have been tried and convicted and are serving long sentences for their crimes, while others are held as prisoners of war and still others held without being charged. These people are NOT hostages under any meaning of that term.

As of this writing (nearly 200 days after they were taken hostage) approximately 134 people continue to be held as hostages in Gaza — At least 34 of them are presumed dead, and Hamas is holding their bodies hostage.

It is simply irresponsible for Palestinian activists or The Daily Northwestern to continue to assert some false equivalence between Israel and Hamas terrorists or to spout falsehoods about what is happening.

Signed,
Stuart Gibson (Medill ’73)

If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.