On Oct. 4, 2025, days before the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, this opinion section published a letter minimizing Hamas’ brutal slaughter of 1,200 innocent concertgoers.

The fact that Hamas raped hundreds of women, beheaded babies and took elderly people hostage on Oct. 7 is indisputable because Hamas proudly live-streamed and took credit for their atrocities. Hamas’ own camera footage showed the barbaric murders and sex crimes committed in real time across the internet.

Yet the author claimed that Hamas is a “resistance group” — not a terrorist organization. The author then audaciously claimed that Israel — not Hamas — was responsible for most of the deaths on Oct. 7.

That is pure lunacy. And regardless of where you stand on the centuries of conflict in the Middle East and what the solution is, we should all be opposed to the sickening violence of Oct. 7.

Anything else is apologizing for terrorism.

You can stand for the humane treatment of Palestinians and the end of the war while also acknowledging the terror inflicted on Oct. 7.

But this letter reads as another attempt to whitewash the multiple crimes and atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists. It is peak antisemitic blood libel, and it is dangerous to Jews everywhere as seen in the recent murder of worshippers at a Manchester, England synagogue on Yom Kippur.

For the opinion page to give a platform to such hateful, antisemitic rhetoric is a new low.

Steve Silver
South Portland