June 26, 2026 Editor, The News Gazette The philosopher Jurgen Habermas wisely urged that public discourse in an ultra-polarised society is dependent on a shared belief that consensus is possible. That consensus can only prevail, he suggested, if we do not assume that if our conversant does not share our view, he or she “is, in fact, a sociopath.”
In that spirit, I wish to assume that Mike Lowry’s recent humanitarian algebra rendering 1,200 Israelis equal to 44,000 Americans and therefore greater than 76,000 Palestinians, is not inherently sociopathic. Let’s look for consensus in the horror of Gaza today.
Today, despite the hostage return that brokered a “ceasefire,” Israeli forces continue to bomb, blockade, and shoot to kill civilians. The two million Palestinians in the line of fire are not terrorists, not “Hamas,” not armed; a quarter of them are not even adult.
As the Israeli military now occupies 60% of the strip and openly plans to scale up, there is clearly no intention of allowing the serially displaced to regain sanctuary, never mind their homes which have been reduced to rubble. The people of Gaza are trapped - denied humanitarian aid and medical care. Children are dying of malnutrition and the wounded left to recover without anesthesia, antibiotics or prosthetics. Doctors are detained without charge and journalists are deliberately targeted. Trauma is pervasive.
I want to suggest that Lowry look at these irrefutable facts. Perhaps the consensus we might reach is this: when a U.S. ally uses U.S. manufactured munitions in air strikes on innocent civilians, are not we, as U.S. citizens, morally obligated to consider the possibility that our ally is not in fact an ally, but something closer to a sociopath? Because this particular version of “self-defense” is one I cannot and will not share. ELIZABETH KIEM Lexington
