A ‘Changed Landscape’: Voices From Israel

To the Editor:

I write this as I mark Israeli Independence Day in the changed landscape of my neighborhood.

Across the street: the home of a soldier killed in Gaza. Up the block: those of three more fallen soldiers. The park next to the grocery store: dedicated to the memory of another fallen soldier. Inside, an amputee carries yogurt with his elbow because his lower arm is gone. Around the corner: the home of a young man murdered at the Tribe of Nova music festival on Oct. 7.

Nearby: the home of my former student who defended Kfar Aza kibbutz until Hamas terrorists shot him. He’s been in the I.C.U. for seven months. Past the park: the home of Noa Marciano, a soldier and hostage who was murdered in Al-Shifa Hospital. Overhead: the drone of warplanes.

We are still under attack from Hamas and Hezbollah. No one in Israel is out of the cross hairs. We’re not sleeping soundly at night. We won’t breathe deeply until the hostages and our soldiers come home.

I want to start a school for religious Muslim and Jewish girls. I plan to spend next year studying Arabic. I dream of a two-state solution.

I think your coverage of this war would look different if you took a walk in my neighborhood.

Sarah Greenberg
Modiin, Israel

To the Editor:

We support the protests against Israel that take place on many campuses in the United States and call on the school administrations to accommodate these protests rather than attempt to crush them, although they disrupt normal activities and annoy people who support Israel’s general policies regarding the Palestinian people.