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 kids criminally kidnapped from a musical venue for convicted and sentenced terrorists just isn’t a deal. It reveals 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 regulation (which Russia did), or kidnapping vacationers or folks visiting kin in Iran and buying and selling them for convicted spies.
No less than don’t name these trades “offers.”
Jesa Kreiner, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Donald Trump is beginning his presidency with a giant bang.
The cease-fire negotiated by former President Biden might by no means have been reached with out Trump’s hand on the size. The warfare 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 reside 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 techniques is not going to change the advantages of planning, diplomacy and cooperation.
As for myself, I don’t need to reside 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
