Since the death of Israeli civilians in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinians has been acknowledged, there must now also be recognition of the innocent Palestinian children, women and men who have been killed by Israeli settlers and military (“Mourning all the lost Julias,” Dec. 11).

When I first read the headline, “Israeli air strike kills 7 in Gaza,” I expected the picture chosen to accompany the article was that of a Palestinian woman mourning the death of a relative (Oct. 28). Instead the caption read, “The granddaughter of an Israeli killed in Wednesday’s suicide bombing in Hadrea grieves as his funeral Thursday.” Is there a reason why the Chicago Tribune failed to include a picture of the death, destruction and mourning the Israeli missiles caused in Gaza?

Religious zealots waste no time declaring natural disasters to be divine punishment. They cite different divine motivations – invariably, causes that matter to them personally.

The Sun-Times does a great disservice to itself, its reader and journalism by publishing guest columns like that of Joel J. Sprayregen (“Americans slain in Gaza deserve better from U.S.,” Oct. 12).

In the Chicago Tribune article, Terrorists keep the chaos going in Gaza, Victor Davis Hanson does nothing more than point fingers and demonize the Palestinian people. It is true that the Palestinian Authority has seriously lacked in making progress in peace and solidarity with Israel. But the Israeli government is far from “welcoming a democratic Palestinian state” as Hanson claims in his article. The mere removal of Jewish settlements in the occupied territory is not a grand step for peace on Israeli side when there is many innocent Palestinians that die daily at the hands of the Israeli government.

In the article, “Al-Qaida Set to Infiltrate Gaza: Israeli Security Chief,” it states the fear of Israel security chief, Yuval Diskin, in relation to al-Qaida finding their way into Israel. With no proof of such a thing occurring, it is hard to believe that this is truly a threat to the Israeli people.

Since Israel’s two chief rabbis have requested that the pope condemn the dismantling of the synagogues in the Gaza Strip in an effort to improve Christian-Jewish relations, there are a few things I am sure all Palestinians would also like to see the pope do (“Rabbis urge pope to condemn synagogue destruction,” Sept. 16).

Instead of letting emotional photographs and one-sided stories get the best of us, the facts on the Palestinian-Israeli issue should be reexamined. Everyone has seen the footage and heard the stories about the sadness and disparity of the Jewish settlers who were evicted from the Gaza Strip, but one must not forget the reasons for the removal of the settlers in the first place.

In the August 24, 2005 article, Pulling up Stakes Doesn’t Mean Israelis are Settling for Less, Gerald D. Skoning gave a rather weak and disturbing metaphor for the Israeli government’s eviction of Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip.

A grim picture of a Gaza settler’s life emerges from the editorial “Clinging to Gaza,” (Aug. 17) a picture that is not entirely accurate. The article offers a wrongful depiction of settlers living among animals just waiting to attack.