There is no doubt that Oct. 7 was brutal and demoralizing for the Israelis. What was especially shocking was that Palestinians finally fought back. It took them 75 years to retaliate, but they finally did. Before 1948, the land that is now called Israel was called Palestine, even when under various empires’ control. But after 500 Palestinian villages were massacred and 750,000 Palestinians were driven off their land and out of their homes by predominantly European-origin Zionist forces, it took the Palestinians (not Arab countries) 75 years to mount a serious retaliation. How dare they? Don’t they know their place? Didn’t the decades-long brutal occupation teach them anything?

The Zionist agenda reminds me of the Christian Crusaders and their land-grab in Palestine, which lasted from 1099 to 1299. I doubt that modern Israel will last that long, unless they control their racist and superiority complex impulses and learn to live with the other ... either with a two-state or one-state solution. Only then will there be peace.

Genevieve Harris-Fraser

Orange