Joe Biden needs to look to the past: Use a little tough love to bring Israel to heel | Opinion
Biden’s focus must be on Israel
What could cool down college protests, defuse the Middle East powder keg and decrease antisemitism? Simple: Israel needs to stop its slaughter in Gaza. Nothing justifies Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians, hospitals, mosques, universities, apartment buildings and refugee camps. Not Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, not anything.
Since prolonging this needless slaughter keeps him in power, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not end it on his own. President Joe Biden must stop sending weapons and money to Israel. Two U.S. presidents — Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush — used this kind of tough love to bring Israel to heel. Biden needs to do the same.
- Ken Pardue, Fort Worth
Don’t fill the powder keg
Mideast countries act like children. One will do something the other doesn’t like. Then, the other feels a need for payback, and on and on. How can peace be achieved if these countries won’t act maturely? It merely takes negotiation and abiding by the results.
Some factions enjoy conflict, but families raising children and living their lives bear the brunt of the warmongers’ endeavors.
- Frankie Andrew, Willow Park
Hamas must be condemned
As a progressive who watches in horrified amazement as Republicans choose irrational ideology over facts, I am similarly appalled by Democrats who blame Israel for defending itself against Hamas’ barbarism.
The world weeps for innocent Gazans killed in battle, as it does for all noncombatants in war. Yet anti-Israel protesters absolve Iranian-backed Hamas for building tunnels beneath private homes, mosques and hospitals to store weapons and hide soldiers — and hostages.
Pro-Palestinian marchers erase years of terrorism culminating in the Oct. 7 massacre. They support the futility of trading land for peace.
Far-right Israelis have been vindicated. Failing to condemn Hamas emboldens those who say negotiating with the Palestinians is impossible; containment becomes the solution. The story of Pharaoh’s daughter offers a far more just way forward. She reached across boundaries to save a child. What if Palestinians and Israelis showed such compassion?
- Barbara Chiarello, Austin
I’m seeing ominous signs in US
I was an impressionable teenager when World War II was killing our young men. Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, we knew what was happening in Europe. News at that time was read in newspapers or seen in newsreels at the movie theaters. We saw the atrocities committed against the Jews by a deranged madman. We were told about the evil experiments of a satanic doctor named Mengele. We were not spared the horror of innocents being marched into ovens and burned to death.
To my sorrow, I’m seeing the same buildup of ill will toward Jews in an America that I don’t recognize anymore. We all thought this could never happen again.
- Wanda Conlin, Fort Worth
Squandering years of GOP good
Third-generation GOP politicians, including Attorney General Ken Paxton, state party Chairman Matt Rinaldi and their grifter consultants, shout “Liberal!” or “RINO!” at fellow Republicans any time they don’t get what they want. Meanwhile, they’re burning political capital hard earned by John Tower, Bill Clements, Phil Gramm, Kay Bailey Hutchison, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Rick Perry, along with consultants such as Karl Rove.
They don’t propose policy. They blame. They don’t persuade voters. They play on fear and envy. Their tantrums make them the snowflakes of the right, and they’re making a mess.
In the May Republican primary runoffs, send the children to their rooms and elect adults such as Craig Goldman for U.S. House and John McQueeney for state representative.
- John Murrin Pritchett, Fort Worth
