Letter to President Barack Obama

Dear President Obama:

I am distressed by the reports that, in the midst of Israel's trying to defend itself against Hamas, a common enemy, your administration changed long-standing procedures to slow down the process of resupplying our only reliable friend and ally in the Middle East.

Israel is on the front lines in a battle between the liberal, democratic Western world and revanchist forces trying to destroy us. We need to stand solidly together.

As you know, Hamas strategically places itself in the midst of populated areas, including schools, hospitals, mosques and private homes, using civilians, including women and children, as human shields. For Hamas, every civilian death is a victory.

As you also know, Israel, even more than us, does whatever it can to avoid harming civilians. The proportion of civilian casualties in Gaza has actually been far lower than that in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Given the way Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the other terrorist groups in Gaza use civilians as human shields, this is truly astounding and deserves our praise.

Especially given this reality and the nature of our common enemies, criticism of Israel's actions is unjustified and harmful, not just to Israel but to America, to our other friends and allies and even to the people of Gaza, since it encourages Hamas in its use of civilians as human shields. Because of this, in the long run, it effectively condemns more, nameless but innocent civilians to death.

I urge you to reverse policy and stand firmly with our friends and against our enemies. It's critically important that the mistakes of the past, fatally flawed ceasefires, each of which enabled Hamas and the other terror groups to rearm and resume terrorism with even more powerful and lethal weapons, not be repeated.

It must be assured that in the next ceasefire, Gaza be de-terrorized. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah must be disarmed and their terror infrastructure permanently destroyed. Anything less will be a bad ceasefire and will be even worse than no ceasefire.

Sincerely,

Alan Stein