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Dear editor,

I, along with much of the rest of the world, am continually sickened with every new headline of widespread death and senseless conflict that comes out of the Middle East. But at this point, I feel it’s clear that Israel’s actions are completely inexcusable and should be wholly condemned.

The piece posted by The Daily Orange this week about Israel’s political dominance and western media’s use of blatantly biased diction greatly demonstrated the lopsidedness of the opinions surrounding this war. Since Israel planted itself on Palestinian land in 1948, there has been as much ignorance toward its heinous actions as there has been fighting.

Anyone with access to Google can see the real effects of the war for themselves. More than 40,000 Palestinians, including more than 16,000 children, have been killed in the past year, and over 1,200 Israelis have been killed. More than 2,000 Lebanese people have also been killed. Hamas is currently holding over 110 hostages, while Israel has more than 9,400 Palestinian “security detainees.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied ceasefire deals, and Hamas claims it has been flexible in trying to arrange a deal.

Let me be clear: any deaths, especially civilian ones, in this conflict are a tragedy. But looking at the numbers, I can’t understand how anyone can continue to support Israel and how it chooses to conduct this war.

The indiscriminate destruction of much of Gaza is equally eye-opening. The photos speak for themselves. It is, dare I say, objectively apparent that Israel has gone out of its way to raze Palestine beyond the purposes of war.

In the nearly 80 years Israel has built itself in and around the Palestinian state that came before it, Palestine has been drained of resources, political influence and sovereignty. Israel has an advanced military and large missile arsenal at its disposal, which it uses to counter Hamas attacks that employ little more than rocket launchers.

Despite all this, it’s obvious people are more divided than ever on this issue, like much everything else in the political sphere. For the sake of all innocent lives — Israeli, Palestinian and elsewhere in the region — I can only hope that leaders in the Middle East and beyond can take a step back and look at all the facts before continuing to escalate this brutal conflict.

Travis Newbery is a junior majoring in magazine, news and digital journalism. He can be reached at travisnewbery5@gmail.com.

Published on October 9, 2024 at 12:33 am