LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - Palestinians’ plight is being ignored

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller claims that, as a result of the U.S. bombing of nuclear facilities in Iran, “We have the beginnings of a new era of stability and peace and security in the Middle East.”

Similarly, Vice President J.D. Vance stated, “And I think the president really hit the reset button and said, look, let's actually produce long term peace for the region....I actually think when we look back, we will say the twelve day war was an important reset moment.”

Yet no mention is made of the ongoing suffering of Palestinians, who were also excluded from the Abraham Accords, the agreements negotiated during President Trump’s first term that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states.

Meanwhile, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently asserted, “We are disassembling Gaza, and leaving it as piles of rubble... And the world isn’t stopping us.” Zvi Sukkot, a member of the Israeli Parliament, went so far as to boast, “Everyone got used to the idea that you can kill 100 Gazans in one night … And nobody in the world cares.”

As Jewish American scholar Judith Butler has observed, for much of the international community, Palestinians are viewed as “ungrievable.”

It’s important to note that the Arab League has repeatedly offered to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for ending the occupation and allowing the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders—about 22% of historic Palestine. This offer is embodied in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

In fact, in September 2024, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, representing 57 Arab countries, declared, “I can tell you here, very unequivocally, all of us, right now, are willing to guarantee the security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing the emergence of a Palestinian state.”

Yet, as Smotrich has provocatively stated, “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

The United Nations’Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that equal rights for all people are the foundation for peace in the world. True stability in the Middle East cannot be achieved through military victories or diplomatic agreements that ignore the rights and aspirations of Palestinians.

Terry Hansen Milwuakee

When I bought my 14-year-old son a crisp, navy suit with a yellow bowtie for his upcoming spring formal, I never imagined that I'd have to bury him in it just days later.

My radiant, joyful boy went over to a family member's house, where he and his cousin found an unsecured gun in a drawer, hidden beneath a t-shirt. They started playing with it, not realizing it was loaded. Minutes later, Ja-Juan was gone.

The phone call we received that afternoon was every parent’s worst nightmare. And it was entirely preventable.

My husband and I had always been protective of JaJuan. We’d taught him as a child to look both ways before crossing the street and not to accept rides from strangers. And we’d always ask other parents the usual questions – about screen time, video games, and curfews – before letting JaJuan go to a friend’s house.

But we never asked: Is there a gun in the house? If so, is it stored securely? It never occurred to us that the thing that posed the greatest risk to JaJuan’s life would be a firearm. But gun injuries are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States.

One of the things I’ve realized since my son passed away is that addressing gun violence and its impact – especially on children – doesn’t have to be a partisan issue. With our children and teens at the center of this crisis, it can’t be. A recent study from Johns Hopkins showed that gun injuries claimed over 2,500 children’s lives in 2022 – more than car crashes, overdoses, or cancers.

Whether you’re a lifelong gun owner or someone who has never touched one, we all want our children to be safe, including reducing suicides and unintentional shootings – which in 2022 accounted for nearly 60% of all gun deaths.

To save lives, we need a cultural shift. That starts with conversations that help people understand how asking simple questions, practicing secure storage and understanding the signs of a mental health crisis can prevent irreversible loss.

For starters, ask other parents, friends, and relatives if they keep firearms and how they’re stored. It might feel awkward at first. But just like you’d ask about peanuts if your child has an allergy, asking about guns could save a life.

Similarly, parents – even the ones who don’t own guns – need to talk to their kids about firearm safety. Make sure kids understand that guns aren’t toys.

We also need to normalize open conversations around mental health. This is especially important when it comes to putting necessary time and space between a teen in a moment of crisis and a firearm.

And eight in 10 Americans agree that productive conversations can help reduce gun injury and death among children and teens.

Sharing JaJuan’s story could help save another family from going through what we did. Talking about secure storage and crisis intervention doesn't have to be controversial. It just has to be done.

Start those lifesaving conversations today. And for those who don’t know where to begin, information and resources to help start the conversation are available. We can all agree that we can all play a role in creating a safer America where gun violence is no longer the leading cause of death for children and teens.

Julvonnia McDowell is the mother of a son who died from an unintentional shooting and is an advocate for secure gun storage. This piece originally ran in USA Today.