Your editorial "Release the hostages," Nov. 7 has some significant inaccuracies.
We wish President Biden wanted a cease-fire.
Mr. Biden only wants humanitarian pauses, which is a different concept from a cease-fire and is an oxymoron, for a pause in the bombing of civilians cannot be labeled humanitarian.
You label the 250 Israelis “defenseless hostages” and make no mention of the 11,000 unarmed Palestinian civilians that Israel has killed.
Pirates take hostages you say, in reference to Hamas. What do you label a people who occupy Palestinian land, dehumanize them so it is easier to kill them, and indiscriminately bomb hospitals, shelters, and schools?
War criminals?
You call for an unconditional release of hostages, but even Israeli families of the hostages demonstrating in front of Israeli war headquarters recognize the injustice and nonviability of that demand.
“All for all” are their chants and placards — 250 hostages for 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t budge.
Mr. Netanyahu invoking Amalek from the Hebrew Bible raises this to a holy war, justifying the killing of women and suckling children.
The U.N. Charter, secular democracies, and journalistic ethics recognize that all human beings are created equal.
Israel needs to shed the Chosen People supremacy premise, and the consequent impunity with which it is killing Palestinians, so that peace can prevail.
MAHJABEEN ISLAM
Monclova Township
The writer is vice president Islamic Center of Greater Toledo
https://www.toledoblade.com/
