Palestinian homeland

President Joe Biden must call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. I support Israel, but I also support the Palestinians’ right to their homeland. If Israel launches a full-scale war against Hamas, thousands of Palestinians will be injured and many will be killed. Hamas has developed because the Palestinians have been waiting since the First Word War for a state of their own. The U.S. and the Western World promised them if they fought with the allies they would receive a country of their own.

The same promise was made when the Second World War started. But although there was support for a Palestinian state, the U.S. and the West were more focused on creating Israel. Until the Palestinians have a state of their own, groups like Hamas will continue to be organized and continue violence against Israel.

The big losers are the Palestinians. Eliminating Hamas will not eliminate the violence against Israel. Only a Palestinian homeland will do that. The U.S. must lead the way for that to happen.

Maggie Fertschneider

Atascadero

Path to reconciliatio

What do you get when you strip generations of people of their autonomy, humanity, dignity and means for a better life? You reap what you sow in resentment, anger, hate, nihilism, rage, revenge, madness and self-destruction. It erupted in the 9/11 attacks, the attacks on the apartheid regime of South Africa, the “troubles” in Northern Ireland, the violent revolutions in Central America and in many other places where powerful nations install authoritarian regimes to do their bidding — regardless of the needs and desires of those under their control.

Now, it’s happening in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Somehow, we act as if we’re surprised at the brutality of a conflagration that’s been festering for decades. We pretend that we’re not complicit in the chronic suffering we support with our silent acquiescence to the domination we inflict on others for geopolitical advantage.

Once again, passions are stirred with propaganda, images and lies designed to force everyone to take a side, make rational and compassionate thought and discourse impossible, and to prevent efforts to forge a path to reconciliation.

David Broadwater

Atascadero

Opinion

American foreign policy

Since Oct. 7, the gutless, overpaid sycophantic liars that predominate the mainstream media (especially on TV) have continually and repeatedly insisted — without any actual evidence — that Hamas’ military wing pulled off an inexcusably successful and ultra-violent operation against the usually heavily armed kibbutzim immediately adjacent to the Gaza Strip in a so-called “surprise attack.”

If you couldn’t see this sort of thing coming from the Gaza Strip, then you must be every bit as blind and dumb as that corrupt criminal con man Bibi Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel.

Anyone who’s been paying any attention whatsoever to the Israeli government’s blatantly and unrepentantly racist South African Apartheid-style policies against the ultra-oppressed Palestinian people should have been able to see this coming. How could you not?

How does that full-blown fascist failure Netanyahu still have his job? We need to start an honest conversation about American foreign policy — something that our mainstream media apparently considers tGrover Beach water rates are set to rise on January 1, 2024, at nearly 20% each year into 2028. We are told that we currently have the lowest rates. That’s correct — for now. But by around 2026, at a 60% rate increase, we will claim the highest rates, with our rates increasing higher than Arroyo Grande and Pismo Beach’s rates are set to increase during this same period.

Our Grover Beach leaders turned us from the lowest rate payers to the highest. Why? The cost of living in California is already high enough.

Kenneth Lehmann

Grover Beach

Feckless stooges

We are less than a month from a possible government shutdown. World conditions are dangerously unstable and a functioning government is essential. However, after removing the elected speaker without a replacement plan, the Republicans have chosen an extremist member of Congress as their leader. Thankfully, Rep. Jim Jordan has had difficulty securing support.

It’s alarming and appalling that the entire California Republican Congressional delegation, including Reps. Kevin Kiley, Doug LaMalfa, and Tom McClintock, has no problem voting for a man intimately connected to the January 6th insurrection and who still denies the outcome of the 2020 election — not to mention those credible allegations of enabling sexual assault.

These local “representatives” and the entire Republican party have shown us they’re uninterested in governing. Chaos and dysfunction are their brand. Let’s fix that in 2024 and replace these feckless stooges.

Barbara Smith

Auburn

Waning confidence

“California: Gavin Newsom’s tiny homes are delayed,” (sacbee.com, Oct. 12)

As someone who feels strongly about the homelessness crisis, I like the state’s initiative to solve this problem. But the fact that the governor is making promises he can’t keep is concerning. If Gov. Gavin Newsom is saying the tiny homes project will get done by fall, people believe him; but so far no homes have been built.

The fact that the state still doesn’t have a contracted business to construct the homes is very concerning, and the fact that it has moved the date to contract with someone three times doesn’t make me feel confident that this will be completed in the near future.

Emet Altevogt-Ward

Folsom