A recent letter contrasting the hope of Hanukkah to the wars in the Middle East (“War casting a pall over Hanukkah,” Jan. 4) was filled with half-truths. In 1948, Israel accepted partition by the U.N.; the Palestinians and the Arab world did not and immediately attacked in the first of many wars. The 191 U.N. resolutions against Israel come from an overwhelming presence of pro-Arab entities. Among displaced peoples, only Palestinians have a U.N. agency, UNRWA, maintaining their refugee status.

Fifty-year-old observations of Palestinians living in ”squalid conditions” neglects to mention that the suffering was and is based in their leaders’ graft and corruption. Billions of aid dollars, donated by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the U.S. and other nations have disappeared into foreign bank accounts and Hamas’ tunnels. Money that was supposed to create an infrastructure instead built mansions on the beach and a war machine placed amid civilians. The radicals among them will continue to wage war until they have got back what they consider theirs, but Jews are the indigenous people of Israel. Muslims have been trying to get rid of them since Islam came on the scene.

Israel is being accused of genocide, but in 1948 Palestinians numbered 1.4 million. In 2023, the population was 5.1 million — which hardly followed a recipe for genocide. The slain Palestinian leaders mentioned have committed some of the worst terrorist attacks in the world. Grief should not be wasted on them but on the fact that Palestinians have refused every offer of peace.

Elaine Kahaner
Cape Elizabeth