Dear Editor,

Sumit Majumder is wrong on AIPAC and Middle East events. An American organization comprised of Americans working within the democratic norms of our nation like millions of others do, AIPAC advocates for candidates and policies benefiting America as well as Israel, including defense systems, cybersecurity, water conservation and reclamation, agriculture, medicine and more.

Contrast this with Qatar, a state in which 95% of the resident population are non-citizen workers with no political rights. Headed by an absolute monarch, Qatar is a patron of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, designated terrorist groups whose goals include the demise of America. Qatar has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying in Washington and on public relations firms. Qatar’s global Al-Jazeera network pours out anti-American messaging.

Is Mr. Majumder concerned about Qatar’s impact on America? If not, why not? Equally erroneous was the author’s reference to alleged “war crimes” by Israel. Contrary to campaigns demonizing the Jewish state on social media, warfighting experts, including West Point’s Chair of Urban Warfare Studies John Spencer, stress that Israel’s army has done more than any in history in the terrible conditions of urban warfare to protect civilians. There has been no genocide by Israel against Gazans—the commonly repeated propaganda charge.

On the contrary, while Hamas gunmen hide behind their civilians, placing guns, rockets and explosives in hospitals, schools and homes, Israel has continuously warned civilians of impending military action, dropping millions of flyers, making millions of warning calls, moving populations out of harm’s way, and altering military moves to avoid casualties.

On October 7, 2023, 1,200 men, women and children were butchered in Israel and 250 taken hostage by Hamas invaders. Responsibility for the tragedy of subsequent Palestinian losses falls on those who instigated the conflict, then hid behind their own women and children, not on those who rose to defend themselves.

Andrea Levin
Newtonville