Mourners wave Israeli flags as they accompany the family of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was killed in Hamas captivity, on their way to his funeral in Jerusalem.

Hamas executes six hostages, including one American. What are the repercussions? ("After hostage killings, can the Israel-Hamas cease-fire talks be revived?" Sept. 3)

Instead of universal condemnation of Hamas and its barbarity, the world focuses on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not having done more to release the hostages. Memories are short, and Israel has accepted a number of cease-fire terms that Hamas has rejected.

Blaming Israel for the hostage deaths emboldens Hamas leaders, because it tells them that their strategy is working. There is no reason for them not to kill more hostages, because the result is not anger at Hamas, but at Israel and its government.

While the tragic killing of six Israeli hostages, and the continuing agony of the remaining Hamas-held hostages and their families, has rightly dominated the news cycle and drawn widespread condemnation, the other part of the hostage story has been mostly underplayed.

And that is the 2 million people in the Gaza Strip and the 3 million in the West Bank who are being held hostage by Israeli occupation. In Gaza, people are being slaughtered with American-made weapons, with more than 40,000 deaths during the Israel-Hamas war.

While the Israeli hostages, thanks to wall-to-wall news coverage, are known by their faces, names and families, the Palestinians are just numbers, and disputed ones at that.

If this situation doesn't cause us to question the loss of our collective humanity, what will?

There is only one solution to Netanyahu's demand that the border between Egypt and Gaza be secured — put an international force there controlled by Americans.

When Germany and Japan were being rebuilt and secured after World War II, the American presence was necessary, and both countries saw that they would be treated fairly. Today they are among our strongest allies.

After the state of Israel was declared in 1948, the result was the widespread bulldozing and takeover of Palestinian lands, which is still going on today. Jews deserve a safe homeland, but so do Palestinians.

Enlist young men from Gaza to man border checkpoints. Give them dignity and take the apartheid issue away from Hamas.

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