Two weeks ago, 1,300 black flags graced the Arts Quad to commemorate the recent deaths in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, standing alongside several dozen signs featuring statements about the recent deaths. This week, in response, the Cornell Israel Public Affairs Committee and Cornell Hillel sponsored a separate display featuring signs regarding Israel’s right to defend itself and Hamas’ affiliations with terrorism.

To the Editor:

Re: “Rally Protests Hamas Rule, Calls For Peace,” Opinion, Feb. 24

Regarding the ongoing tumult over the recent vandalizing of the Gaza display on the Arts Quad, while this writer offers no view on the merits of the terrible situation in Gaza and Israel, one must ask why the Cornell University administration has elected to politicize the Arts Quad in the heart of the campus in contravention of its own rules and regulations that expressly prohibit outdoor displays and postings? (See: the Office of the Dean of Students’ website for the official posting policy guidelines at: http://sao.cornell.edu/SO/postering.php.)

It’s been two weeks since The Column That Launched a Thousand Ships. And I want to preface this one by saying that it is no apology, but rather an addendum.

The chaos that my column spurred, while not completely unexpected, certainly reflects a reality: It hit a sore, sore spot for many. I originally wrote it because there had not been anything in The Sun about the Israel/Gaza situation. I felt that strong feelings must be festering on all fronts that would doubtlessly explode soon. Indeed, I learned that I was not the only one whose “fire had been ignited” over break — people from all political persuasions, from all religions, took my column and used it to explode all over the place.

Ariela Rutkin-Becker wants to know what I want to know, and the bomb-loving crowd won’t tell: “What I want to know,” she wrote on Tuesday, “what burns me up at night is how are so many other American Jews not red-in-the-face, infuriated, embarrassed and righteously indignant now with Israel’s response to Gaza’s rocket-fire?” Ms. Rutkin-Becker, unwillingly and unknowingly conscripted by her temple sisterhood into the Stay-Here-in-America-but-Send-Money brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, isn’t the only one with a presumptive synagogue.