In her rebuttal letter (July 24), Kathleen Kienitz complained that syndicated columnists Charles Krauthammer and Cal Thomas were “inane” in writing about Israeli action in Gaza. However, she failed to mention any fallacies in their reasoning.

It is true, the Palestinians have suffered several hundred losses in Gaza, despite telephone and leaflet warnings from Israel to leave targeted areas. Hamas leaders have urged Palestinians to stay in buildings as human shields and then the victims are used by Hamas for propaganda purposes. It has been reported that Hamas has fired missiles from a hospital and that bombs were being stored in two U.N. schools.

To quote Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, “We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles.”

In 2005, Israel left Gaza to the Palestinian Authority in hopes that a new, prosperous Arab state would evolve. Instead, the Palestinians started lobbing bombs into Israel and haven’t stopped. During this same nine-year period, Israel has also had to deal with terrorist attacks and had to set up checkpoints at border crossings to deter the terrorists, similar to the checkpoints at U.S. airports.

Hamas has built dozens of tunnels from Gaza into Israel and into Egypt, as well, since Egypt and Gaza share a southern border. These sophisticated tunnels have been used to successfully smuggle bombs and guns into Gaza, but could have been used to import food if the rulers of Gaza were interested in feeding their “starving” citizens.

Joel Goodman, Auburn