To the editor:

Civilians are going to die in wars. That is one of the unfortunate consequences of any war, and when the civilian victims support the group that started the war – like the Palestinians did the terrorist organization and Gaza-ruling Hamas – there will undoubtedly be unfortunate casualties among the truly innocent.

I was amazed, therefore, by the calls for a ceasefire in Gaza issued by Tristan Varma and others who appeared at the recent Alexandria City Council meeting, as reported in the April 18 edition of the Alexandria Times.

Does Varma believe that Israel does not have the right to defend itself and to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas? Does Varma think that Israeli Jews should just accept their own death and allow Hamas to escape unchallenged and unpunished?

That is not what the history of the State of Israel suggests was going to be the Israeli response, and it was not the response after the atrocities of Oct. 7. Varma’s challenge that, “The people of Palestine are people” was a meaning-less exercise.

Of course Palestinians are people. They are people who backed Hamas and voted it into power in Gaza during the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006, giving it a large majority of seats in Gaza’s legislative body. Even in 2006, Hamas was quite well known as a terrorist group, yet Palestinians in Gaza voted it into power anyway.

Just what did these voters think was going to happen with a ruling group whose 1988 “Hamas Covenant” vows that, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it” and “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them”?

The wanton murders of Israelis – including women and children – by Hamas fighters on and after Oct. 7 were a logical outgrowth of Hamas taking power in Gaza, and it is absurd to think that Israel should not do whatever is necessary to prevent any such future incursions and murders.

My heart goes out to the innocent children and others who have died during this war, but as the Bible suggests at Hosea 8:7, sowing the wind does, in fact, often reap the whirlwind. Perhaps the Palestinian voters in Gaza should have considered this possibility back in 2006.

-Col. James Currie, USA (Ret.)

Alexandria