To the Editor:

Re: “The Wrong to Remain Silent,” Opinion, Jan. 27 and “Gaza Razed: Will Israel Be Held Accountable?,” Opinion, Jan. 29

A few evenings ago, I found myself sitting around the dinner table, participating in a heated discussion sparked by Ariela Rutkin-Becker’s “The Wrong to Remain Silent.” I suppose I should pity Ms. Rutkin-Becker, for she is unable not only to feel the great pride in American Jewry that I felt listening to my peers that evening, but also to see the flaws in her passionate logic regarding the “laws of humankind.” Perhaps these are the same laws that govern the “social contract” of our “enlightenment philosophers” to which Munier Salem so admiringly alludes.

I question, Mr. Salem, whether it is in light of this social contract that Hamas, which you boldly justify as a necessary government, operates. I question whether the children of Gaza would list being used as human shields among the “necessary services” provided by their government. I question whether residents of Gaza, upon being warned by the IDF to evacuate their apartment buildings which their government uses as arsenals in the good fashion of providing “necessary services,” would raise their arms in thanks for being kept inside by force. And I question, Mr. Salem, whether you are truly naïve enough to believe that a “government” that functions under such inhumane standards would not have the audacity to hide explosives in a Ministry of Justice, a university, hospitals, schools, mosques and yes, a fire station.

I suppose I should stop here and recognize my good fortune once more, for I was lucky enough to spend an academic year in Israel during which “only” three major terrorist attacks took place. In response to your question then, Ms. Rutkin-Becker, experience would suggest that indeed, somebody does “sincerely believe that Israel is actually made safer by building a wall.” But perhaps I am mistaken. Perhaps, as Mr. Salem suggests, Israel should direct its resources not at protecting itself from Hamas’ daily attacks aimed at killing as many innocent people as possible, but rather at “creation” in an area which Israel forced its citizens to evacuate entirely in 2005. Israel, I might add, left behind countless modern developments from which the Palestinians could have benefited. I guess Hamas can proudly add the destruction of these (in a statement of spite against Israel) to the list of “necessary services” it is so generously providing for its people.

Maya Rinat ’12