Look closer at the missions in Israel, Gaza

Re: “Debate flares up downtown,” Dec. 1 news story

It is somewhat ironic that juxtaposed with the article about the Jewish National Fund protest is a full-page ad from Jewish National Fund. In this ad, there are 10 bullet points outlining the work of the Jewish National Fund. I am paraphrasing to be concise, but here they are:

1. Building schools, medical centers, parks and playgrounds in underserved areas.

2. Supporting Arab and Israeli scientists working together to solve environmental challenges.

3. Healing American veterans with spiritual trips to Israel.

4. Empowering Arab and other women to achieve economic freedom.

5. Community building to foster coexistence.

6. Training farmers from developing nations to use Israel’s innovative water-saving farming methods.

7. Supporting Israel’s firefighters.

8. Supporting children and adults with disabilities.

9. Providing mental health services to Israeli children with PTSD.

10. Operating a study abroad program for American high school students.

Those all seem like good things to me. I wish the protesters did more research before targeting this gathering. Targeting an American organization simply because it does good work in Israel strikes me as antisemitic. — Nancy Litwack-strong, Lakewood

I’d like to address an old, worn- out saw that Zionists repeat ad nauseam: “Israel has a right to defend itself.” Israel applies “self- defense” to anything it wants to do. The term is meaningless but makes them feel vindicated.

Killing children in Gaza is not self-defense. Military incursions, whether by air or ground, into occupied territories such as Gaza and the West Bank are not self-defense.

These points are not hard to understand except for those who are OK with murdering Palestinians. Thank you for allowing a less-heard point of view to be expressed. — Nancy Fey, Denver