The controversial opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, marks the deadliest day of violence in Gaza since 2014. Gaza's Hamas rulers have vowed that the marches will continue until the decade-old Israeli blockade of the territory is lifted.Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
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Mideast deaths, turmoil
Re Dozens Killed In Gaza As U.S. Moves Embassy To Jerusalem (May 15): Why does the word “massacre” to describe what happened along the Gaza border only appear in quotation marks?
I think an incident that results in 60 deaths on one side and zero on the other fits the usual definition of the word.
Jeff White, Toronto
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Your article refers to “protesters,” but if they “hurled firebombs,” rocks and burning tires, and attempted to breach the border, wouldn’t it be more honest to call them “rioters”?
Michael D. Arkin, Toronto
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Your article about the U.S. moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem did not include the most significant part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks at the festivities in Jerusalem. At the end of his speech, Mr. Netanyahu called for God’s blessings on “Jerusalem, the eternal, undivided capital of Israel.” The audience, including the U.S. delegation, immediately gave him a standing ovation.
The symbolism is unmistakable. Regardless of the weasel words being put out by the State Department, Mr. Trump’s White House by its actions is clearly accepting Israel’s claim to all of Jerusalem; the Palestinian claim to regain East Jerusalem is a dead letter. Those in the Palestinian community who call for violence to regain their homeland will say, “I told you so.” Those who call for negotiation will be sidelined. The prospects for peace will be diminished. All we can hope for is Mr. Trump’s early exit from power.
Peter Love, Toronto
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The U.S. Congress didn’t move the American embassy to Jerusalem. Let’s put the blame squarely where it belongs. Another reckless decision by President Donald Trump.
Nancy Mouget, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
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I am thinking of the 10 people killed in Toronto recently and the grief that absorbed the city.
And I am thinking of the shooting of 58 people in Gaza by the Israeli military.
The population of Gaza is smaller than that of Toronto. Likely every family there would know someone who had been killed. The dead include 14-year-old Ezz el-din Musa Mohamed Alsamaak and 15-year-old Wisaal Fadl Ezzat Alsheikh Khalil.
When our community was suffering, heads of state called to offer condolences. As caring Canadians, it would be appropriate to hear that our Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Representative in Ottawa to offer Canada’s condolences to those who are grieving.
Rev. Marianna Harris, Toronto
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Why weren’t there thousands of protesters at the Egyptian border? If there had been, how would Egypt have reacted?
Stephen Kurtz, Windsor, Ont.
Pols’ ‘cheap dates’?
Re Harper: Missed And Not (May 15): Too many Canadians are a “cheap date” where their leaders are concerned.
A letter writer feels that getting a couple of thousand dollars a year justifies the place of Stephen Harper as a great leader. As a prime minister, Mr. Harper was inaccessible to the media, ran a campaign which demonized a minority group in our society and muzzled Canadian scientists.
I don’t know if he helped us through the recession – all I remember is him telling me to buy when I was losing tens of thousands of dollars.
Once again in Ontario, we have a leader-wannabe who promises us a few extra annual bucks in lower taxes and more jobs (the province’s unemployment rate is already the lowest it’s been since 2000).
Next up: What price liberty?
Elizabeth Fernandes Toronto
Fat chances
Re Worth Its Weight (Opinion Section, May 12): Quebec should be lauded and emulated for its funding of life-saving bariatric surgery. It is unethical not to provide this choice to patients. It is also true that the nagging and shaming approach to dealing with obesity has led us nowhere. It, too, is unethical.
However, to blame population-level problems of obesity on individual genetics is equally wrong and dangerous. Rates of obesity have been rising in much of the world, and while genetics aren’t changing, at least not that quickly, food systems, economic inequality, sleep patterns and a host of other social and economic factors are.
Social and biological scientists have long concluded that obesity is the result of a toxic combination of genetics and unhealthy social arrangements. Blaming individuals for either is wrong, but there are more than enough reasons to blame our city design, our jobs, and our cultural environments.
The good news is that in places like the Netherlands and even a few American cities and states, obesity rates are declining. They are turning the tide not through shaming or medical intervention, but through building livable cities where walking and cycling is easy, through addressing poverty, by improving access to real food and other reasonable political decisions.
Joey Moore, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Douglas College, Vancouver
Speak to the wise
Re Received Wisdom (Opinion Section, May 12): While Jonathan Rauch’s insightful piece examines the scientific components of wisdom, there is also the anthropological (humanistic) side of wisdom.
Perhaps further exploration into the quality of wisdom is not something that can merely be examined through a microscope or quantitatively defined, but can simply be discovered among those who are are wise: the “elders” themselves.
Crossculturally, elders play an important role/function in society. There is plenty of mysticism and folklore about the wise, too, such as in Australian Aboriginal religion about “Dreamtime” or the mischievous and wise “grey jay” among the Anishinaabe in Canada.
Part two to complement this opinion piece would be to delve into other cultures about wisdom. There is much we can learn and their stories should be shared and heard, too.
Davina Eisenstat, Edmonton
Oil (ouch) math
Re Climbing Oil Prices Hit Drivers At The Pumps (May 14): Let’s see if I got this straight. You say that in 2008, oil peaked at about US$150 a barrel and gasoline rose to an average of $1.40 a litre in Canada; then in 2014, oil hit US$100 a barrel and gasoline averaged $1.41 a litre here; and in 2018, oil rises to US$70 a barrel and gasoline averages $1.38 a litre.
The math I learned doesn’t seem to help me any more in the equation connecting the barrel price and the price at the pump. Can someone who understands this New Math stuff help me on this one?
Ben Rathbone, Kamloops, B.C.