I was disappointed by the A-Blast article in the September 3rd edition,  “Gaza: The People of Palestine and the War Occurring Between Gaza and Israel”, which was biased against Israel.

The article unfairly labels Israel’s actions in the war as a “brutal aggression” but it fails to mention that the war was instigated by Hamas, an organization dedicated to destroying Israel, when it fired rockets at Israeli citizens.  Israel had no choice but to react.

It is terrible that so many innocent Palestinians were killed in this conflict, but Hamas deliberately used its citizens as human shields to give Israel a “black-eye” in the media.

The article also includes a timeline which states, “The UN successfully passes a plan to separate Western Palestine into two states.”

The Israelis accepted this plan; however, the Palestinian leadership along with the countries surrounding Israel including Egypt, Syria and Jordan, rejected the UN’s two-state partition plan and attacked.

Israel survived that war and has since signed peace accords with Egypt and Jordan.  Israel has tried in vain to negotiate peace with the Palestinians, including the 2000 Camp David Accords between Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat, but the Palestinian leader rejected yet another two-state solution.

Many of Israel’s citizens long for peace and would gladly accept a two-state solution.  However, peace will not be achieved as long as organizations such as Hamas refuse to accept Israel’s right to exist.