To the editor: This isn’t a “deal” between Israel and Hamas. It’s extortion. (“Cease-fire between Israel and Hamas begins with hostages being handed over,” Jan. 19)
Buying and selling a 2-year-old Kfir Bibas and children criminally kidnapped from a musical venue for convicted and sentenced terrorists shouldn’t be a deal. It exhibits that extortion pays, like buying and selling a kidnapped journalist and basketball participant for spies that had been tried and sentenced in a court docket of legislation (which Russia did), or kidnapping vacationers or individuals visiting relations in Iran and buying and selling them for convicted spies.
A minimum of don’t name these trades “offers.”
Jesa Kreiner, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Donald Trump is beginning his presidency with an enormous bang.
The cease-fire negotiated by former President Biden might by no means have been reached with out Trump’s hand on the dimensions. The battle in Ukraine will in all probability finish quickly due to his affect with each side. The southern border will in the end be secured, and unhealthy relations with China (which Trump exacerbated in his first time period) may very well enhance.
All this stuff are good and achieved solely due to the president’s unpredictability. Nobody desires to poke this bear. It’s like throwing a stay grenade on the deck of a pitching ship. Nobody desires to seize it to throw it overboard.
The issue is that in time it’ll play out and predictability will return, even to the unpredictable one. In the long term, bullying and scare ways is not going to exchange the advantages of planning, diplomacy and cooperation.
As for myself, I don’t wish to stay in a world fraught with unpredictable hazard, institutionalized nastiness and mistrust of establishments — it doesn’t matter what the rewards could also be.
Michael Telerant, Los Angeles
