Soggy Bread
East Hampton Village
September 27, 2026
Hello David,
Correction please — insinuated in “The Shipwreck Rose” column of last week was that one might be “threatened with arrest if you fed white bread to the ducks.”
Speaking on behalf of the Nature Trail Committee of the Ladies Village Improvement Society, I would like to clarify our stance and our signage.
Yes — absolutely — we discourage feeding white bread, cereal, or bagels to the ducks because it can make them sick and creates an unsightly Duck Pond. More precisely, if ducklings fill up on bread, they develop an irreversible deformity called angel wing that prevents the natural ability to fly. Plus, uneaten, soggy bread and bagels rot in the water, which not only looks awful but fuels toxic algae blooms and spreads disease-causing bacteria. Attracts rats too.
The good news: Since we have posted signs to dissuade this behavior — people in general have taken note, and the ducks are healthier while the place looks much better.
Long live the Nature Trail,
DIANNE BENSON
Brings Together
East Hampton Village
September 28, 2026
To the Editor,
As a local business owner just down the street from Guild Hall, I have had a front-row seat to what this institution brings to East Hampton, and I feel compelled to add my voice to the recent conversation about its value to our community.
Guild Hall is not some distant institution disconnected from the people who live here. It is woven into the life of our village. Throughout the year, it brings people together for exhibitions, performances, classes, lectures, educational programs, and community events. It introduces us to extraordinary artists from elsewhere while continuing to provide opportunities for artists who live and work right here on the East End. I have seen that personally.
My own daughter had the opportunity to participate in a group exhibition at Guild Hall. As a mother, I know what it meant to see her work hanging in the galleries of an institution with such a distinguished history. Experiences like that encourage young people and tell them that their creativity matters.
As a business owner, I also see something else. Cultural institutions contribute to the vitality of a village. People come to Guild Hall, walk our streets, visit our stores and restaurants, and participate in the life of East Hampton. A thriving cultural institution and a thriving local community are not competing interests. They support each other.
Could any institution do more? Of course. But I find it unfortunate to hear Guild Hall’s contribution reduced to a calculation of how many opportunities it provides to one particular group. Community is much bigger than that; it includes our children, families, seniors, artists, educators, businesses, and neighbors. It includes people attending a class for the first time and artists seeing their work exhibited. It includes all of us who benefit from living in a place where art and culture remain part of everyday life.
Guild Hall has been creating those connections for generations.
From where I stand — quite literally just down the street — that looks very much like serving the community.
VALERIE YUGOVA
Conversation Started
Sagaponack
September 28, 2026
To the Editor,
As the beginning of the 34th Hamptons International Film Festival approaches, there has been a great deal of focus on one particular film, “NAZA,” which has engendered much controversy, despite the fact that those who object to its being screened have not actually seen the film, including many in our own community here in the Hamptons.
Before I address the firestorm that has ensued, please note that I have been a staunch Zionist ever since I first visited Israel with my synagogue’s confirmation class during the summer of 1970. Over the years, I have spent a great deal of time in Israel, including three visits since Oct. 7, 2023, to the Gaza border communities that were so horrifically attacked on the single worst day of violence against Jews since the Holocaust.
Moreover, I have devoted much of my adult life to the well-being of the Jewish people and to Israel’s future as a secure, Jewish, and democratic state. I was the inaugural chair of the Birthright Israel Foundation, a three-term president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, and a seven-year chair of Israel Policy Forum, an organization dedicated to an eventual two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In short, I know the land and the people of Israel well, and Israel’s existence is core to my Jewish identity.
The movie seems to assert that the Israel Defense Forces have utilized artificial intellegence to target Hamas militants over the course of the war in Gaza and have employed a formula for such killings tied to how much collateral damage (“nezek agavi”, or NAZA in Hebrew military shorthand) — meaning civilian deaths — is deemed acceptable, based upon the rank and seniority of the target.
The identities of the I.D.F. soldiers interviewed in the film have been obscured, and they are filmed at night on a rooftop in Tel Aviv. However, this doesn’t mean that their claims aren’t accurate; it simply means that these claims need to be assessed and either proven or disproven. That is something that the I.D.F. could do by setting up a commission of inquiry to investigate these allegations and by responding accordingly. I sincerely hope that the I.D.F. will do so.
The horrors of Oct. 7, the abduction of Israeli hostages into Gaza, their torture, brutalization, starvation, and murders have all been seared into the consciousness of Israelis and Jews worldwide. Israel had every right and every obligation to respond to this devastating attack on its people, many of whom, it should be noted, were themselves striving for a better future with their neighbors in Gaza by founding organizations dedicated to peace and by volunteering to drive Gazans to medical treatment in Israel and in the West Bank. It is beyond tragic that some of the Israelis most devoted to peace were murdered on October 7 and in its aftermath.
But it also needs to be acknowledged that Israelis have experienced the war’s consequences very differently than those of us in the United States and in the rest of the world. Simply put, Israeli news has not covered the death, destruction, and displacement resulting from this war as Western media have. Perhaps the film’s existence will provide a path for Israelis to better understand the devastation and suffering among civilians in Gaza in a war that has gone on for nearly three years. Apparently, that conversation has started in Israel due to the controversy over the film itself.
Yet, the reaction in Israel to this film — again, without anyone having seen it — has been so over the top, it beggars description. Calls from Prime Minister Netanyahu and other government officials to revoke the citizenship of the filmmakers. Protests outside the home of the parents of Rachel Szor, one of the filmmakers, calling for the filmmakers’ executions. Describing the film as “blood libel.”
Of course, all of the outcry has only served to spark major interest in the film itself. It should be noted that after “NAZA” premiered at the Venice Film Festival, it has been screened at the New York Film Festival and will be featured at numerous other festivals in the coming months.
In our own Hamptons community, there are those who have not only called on HIFF to cancel the film’s screenings but have tried to attack the film festival itself in unacceptable ways, such as pressuring major donors to cancel their support.
The Hamptons International Film Festival is a true jewel in our community’s crown. In addition to being an annual cultural highlight and providing a great deal of revenue to the Hamptons, the festival has consistently allowed us to challenge ourselves and even take us out of our comfort zones by offering different ways to think about an issue or the state of the world. To me, that is art’s highest calling, and it is one that HIFF has excelled in over the years.
So, I would simply ask the following: Don’t prejudge a film that you haven’t seen. If you don’t want to see the film, then by all means, don’t go. But don’t try to prevent others from seeing the film. That’s censorship, plain and simple.
SUSIE GELMAN
Required to Attend?
Amagansett
September 25, 2026
To the Editor,
In light of the controversy about the Hamptons International Film Festival screenings of “NAZA,” I offer the following questions:
Is anyone required to attend a film they do not wish to see or support?
Is the concern that the “anonymous sources” are not actually the sources they are depicted to be? The Guardian’s investigative journalists and its executive producer, Jonathan Glazer, certainly have put their reputations on the line.
If this film exposes inexcusable misdeeds by Israeli military and intelligence, how does that reflect on the atrocious and indefensible misdeeds of Hamas in the precipitating Oct. 7 attack? Might they both be true? Does one excuse the other?
Is the pushback that the film is inaccurate or that the film exposes information that one prefers remain unexamined?
“NAZA” premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September and will have its New York premiere at the New York Film Festival before HIFF begins. It will be released in theaters this fall and will be available free on the Guardian website. I am confident the movie will be thoroughly dissected by those who agree and those who disagree with the presentation.
Further, I disagree with the assertion that by labeling “NAZA” as a documentary HIFF is certifying that it is “verified fact.” I have seen many documentaries about which I have concluded that the presentation was advocacy rather than evenhanded. (“The Art of the Steal,” about the Barnes museum, and several documentaries about Edward Snowden leap to mind.)
Isn’t it appropriate for art to provoke thought and discussion? The addition of “The Choice,” the repeat of “Holding Liat,” and the addition of moderated discussions will facilitate this.
Most of all, I go back to my initial question: Is anyone being forced to attend this film? I am choosing not to attend, but do not question the judgement of HIFF in showing the film.
Hoping for peace and tolerance,
BARBARA HILL
Some Facts
Springs
September 27, 2026
Dear Editor Rattray,
Editorials are powerful tools and many people, especially in small towns, read them carefully before forming their own opinions. Readers trust that editors have done a thorough investigation before opining. It is the editor’s job to get as much information as possible before drawing conclusions and passing those conclusions on to readers through their editorials.
It troubled me, therefore, to read that “many” people attending last week’s Springs citizens’ advisory committee meeting “left feeling unheard,” “reported feeling ignored,” or were “treated rudely” by me in my capacity as chairwoman of that meeting. They are entitled to their feelings, of course, but a responsible editor could have contacted me to respond to those criticisms. I don’t believe you were at the meeting for any firsthand observations.
Here are some facts. Over 90 minutes of that meeting were devoted to attendees’ questions and remarks. I made sure everyone had a chance to speak before allowing people to speak a second time. I thanked everyone for their comments. In ending the meeting I asked if anyone had anything new to add to what had been previously stated before calling for a motion to adjourn. I don’t know what more I could have done. People came to be heard by our liaison, Ian Calder-Piedmonte, and that is exactly what happened.
P.S.: I agree that each hamlet should have a citizens group separate from town board appointments and would encourage that formation.
Sincerely,
LORING BOLGER
Springs Citizens Advisory Committee
Tangible Results
Amagansett
September 28, 2026
Dear David,
Your Sept. 24 editorial “Time Again to Revisit C.A.C.s” accurately highlighted dysfunction within East Hampton’s citizens advisory committees — specifically, the silencing of a Wainscott resident who raised groundwater concerns and the disregard of Springs residents’ concerns about a library parking lot. These examples reveal a system too tightly controlled by town board liaisons. But this failure is not universal.
By contrast, the Amagansett C.A.C. has long worked to protect and preserve our hamlet’s character. Our liaison, Councilman Tom Flight, has never tried to stifle our voices or restrict our meetings. During his three years as liaison, he has encouraged free speech, welcomed differing opinions, and never objected to a guest speaker.
We encourage all residents — whether official members or not — to attend and participate in our monthly meetings. Unlike the Wainscott C.A.C., which limits its roster to 11 members and requires a vote to join, the Amagansett C.A.C. does not cap participation and invites everyone to take part. The appointment process, however, remains flawed. The town board has historically controlled appointments, at times in ways that appear political.
Despite these structural hurdles, we have never shied away from controversial subjects or from bringing in highly knowledgeable speakers. The Amagansett C.A.C. welcomed Si Kinsella and Village TKTKTK Jerry Turza to speak openly about the battery storage-site fire and PFAS contamination. We also invited Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez to discuss these critical issues, but she did not attend.
Our commitment to open public discourse also contrasts with political gamesmanship. Soon after the primary election, three town board members attended one of our meetings without prior notice — an appearance that raised serious concerns under the Open Meetings Law.
Our collaborative, transparent approach has produced tangible results. The Amagansett C.A.C. helped protect 555 Montauk Highway from overdevelopment, misuse, and zoning changes. We secured a restroom for the business area parking lot, obtained a critical three-way stop at Indian Wells Highway and Bluff Road, and pressed for long-awaited repairs to the Cranberry Hole Bridge.
We have also advanced plans for a new accessible playground at the parking lot, spearheaded the continuing campaign for residential home mail delivery in Amagansett, and are working to secure proper lighting for Main Street.
Still, a few well-run, courageous committees cannot repair a structurally flawed town system. While remaining part of the town’s committee structure, each hamlet’s C.A.C. should have some independence, including the authority to communicate in writing directly with the town planning and zoning boards. This would allow C.A.C.s to advocate more effectively for their communities while still serving as official town committees.
RONA KLOPMAN
Chairwoman
VICKI LITTMAN
Vice-Chairwoman
Reasonable Alternatives
Springs
September 25, 2026
Dear David,
As stewards of Accabonac Harbor and Pussy’s Pond, we are compelled to speak out against current plans to build a parking lot behind the Springs Library.
As a board, our current position is that all reasonable alternatives to building a parking lot by the Pussy’s Pond Preserve be explored. Those alternatives may include:
Parking: Directing cars to School Street, on nearby town-owned property or elsewhere.
Scheduling: Encouraging the organizations that make up the “Springs Triangle” (Ashawagh Hall, Springs Historical Society, and Springs Presbyterian Church) to collaborate on their scheduling so that multiple events aren’t happening at the same time
Relocating events: Looking at other locations for activities and events that have outgrown the current space, whether it’s the farmers market or mahjong night.
Adding accessible parking: Allocating more accessible parking close to the library or Ashawagh Hall so that those who truly need those spaces are accommodated.
We are open and willing to take an active part in exploring those alternatives. Additionally, we are interested in seeing a study to quantify the issue, rather than what seems to be the current approach of relying on anecdotal observation.
As we have noted in letters to the East Hampton Town Board and East Hampton Town Trustees, we urge that as small an impact as possible be made on the delicate environment we cherish.
Sincerely,
NICHOLAS BRYAN
GEOFFREY DRUMMOND
REBECCA GORDON
MARK OBENHAUS
JODY SUTTER
GLYN VINCENT
Accabonac Protection Committee
Take a Step Back
Hampton Bays
September 28, 2026
To the Editor,
The recent proposal by East Hampton Town to clear trees for a parking lot in Springs has brought a great deal of opposition from concerned residents while pressing the town for a demonstration of need and requesting alternatives. This is reason alone for the town to take a step back and reconsider, to heed the concerns from the community.
While the lot itself may be outside wetlands jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Conservation with regard to its proximity to Pussy’s Pond and Accabonac Harbor’s surface waters, this does not negate the fact that the property lies well within a Suffolk County Subwatersheds Plan high-priority area with groundwater-to-surface water travel times of zero to two years. As such, any runoff from the property or pollutants entering the proposed permeable surface can and will make their way to Pussy’s Pond and Accabonac Harbor.
The property, once cleared, will most likely remain so in perpetuity. Is this worth a mere 30 or so temporarily used parking spaces when other nearby alternatives could easily accommodate this need?
Could parking be accommodated at the Springs School with a courtesy shuttle offering those patrons in need a ride to the farmers market? Could resources be invested in restoring an accessible footpath from the school to the market to encourage walking? Any and all ideas should be considered before moving forward with the current proposal.
It has been argued that Springs was once more of an open vista with cleared trees and that the clearing of this lot again would restore the so-called “historic” aspects of the property. But what about that historic time before colonial settlers arrived, when the entirety of Springs was covered in trees that provided habitat and mitigated runoff into our creeks, bays, and ponds? Protect and honor that version of history, and you will better protect the future of our waterways.
PETE TOPPING
Peconic Baykeeper
Pussy’s Pond
Springs
September 28, 2026
To the Editor,
As a Springs resident and Eastern Long Island Chapter manager of the Surfrider Foundation, I am deeply disappointed in the town for moving forward with its proposed parking lot at the Springs Library when clear alternatives — alternatives that would not harm the already-fragile water quality at Pussy’s Pond — already exist.
One alternative that I wish to propose to the town board is to make use of the existing parking infrastructure at Springs School and the short but beautiful walking trail and bridge over Pussy’s Pond.
We all know about Springs School and the availability of parking there, especially during summer weekends, when the farmers market is in session but school is not. Less well known is the short but lovely trail system that connects Springs School to the Blacksmith Shop — via the Pussy’s Pond footbridge, which was completed in 2013 and dedicated to the youth of Springs.
I would forgive readers for not knowing about this footbridge and its trails. Within a few years of its celebrated reconstruction, the bridge became obscured by cattails and phragmites, blocking the picturesque views of Pussy’s Pond from the beautiful black locust wood bridge. Furthermore, the short trails on either end of the bridge are largely unmarked and have become overgrown and left in disrepair, making it difficult to consider the short walk over the footbridge without wearing tick repellent and hiking boots.
Improving upon the existing Pussy’s Pond footbridge and trails system, along with clear communication on where parking is allowed and where patrons should walk, could make visiting the Springs Farmers Market safer for guests, drivers, and our watershed without razing trees and causing community uproar in the process.
What’s more, these improvements should be easy, at least compared to building a new gravel parking lot. This overgrowth on the trails is nothing a weed whacker, chain saw, and a work crew couldn’t complete in one day.
The town could also opt to make the trail more accessible by replacing the dirt trail with a wooden or gravel path. I won’t contest that clearing the reeds around the bridge could be a bit more difficult, considering jurisdiction and wetlands regulations, but such clearing would not be required for the footbridge to be usable; it would only be cosmetic.
While parking at the Springs School would need to be discussed with the school board, it is my understanding that the Springs School had allowed parking for farmers market patrons in previous summers, so I see no reason why they would not allow this moving forward.
Herein lies the solution to Springs’s snafu: Rather than spending $175,000 on chopping down open space for yet another ecologically destructive parking lot — one vehemently opposed by many of our Springs neighbors — this money could be spent revitalizing a cherished community resource that has fallen into disrepair and preserving it for years to come. I strongly encourage the Town of East Hampton to explore this alternative solution and the others proposed before literally bulldozing ahead and building a new environmentally disruptive, unnecessary parking lot.
Best regards,
BRODY EGGERT
Heads Downhill|
Springs
September 28, 2026
To the Editor:
The proposed gravel parking lot behind the Springs Library is being sold as a gentle, landscaped fix for a parking shortage. It is neither gentle nor necessary.
The larger of the two layouts the board favors would clear roughly 17,000 square feet of woods on a steep slope above Pussy’s Pond. Gravel is not porous once cars sit on it. The surface compacts, the topsoil is gone, and runoff heads downhill toward a pond the town has spent years and grant money restoring.
A 150-foot setback is not a guarantee; it is a hope.
The need itself is overstated. The Springs School lot sits a short walk away, and a shuttle on market Saturdays would handle the real pinch without touching a single tree. The town also owns the Parsons-Dodge parcel across from Ashawagh Hall, whose own management plan already contemplates overflow parking. Neither has been seriously tested.
Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte says the project is not a done deal and that he wants to hear all sides. Then hear them. Pause the design work, put the alternatives on the table in writing, and let the Springs citizens advisory committee weigh them before another dollar of the $175,000 capital budget is spent. Once the trees come down, there is no going back.
Best regards,
PATRICE DALTON
Deserve a Discussion
East Hampton
September 24, 2026
To the Editor:
East Hampton needs a serious public conversation about its tick problem and possible solutions.
Our preserved woodlands should be places where residents can enjoy nature, yet even brief visits can bring numerous bites and severe itching. Tick-borne illnesses found in New York include Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, and Powassan virus disease. Lone star tick bites can also cause alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy to mammalian meat and related products.
The issue affects wildlife as well. Heavy infestations may cause significant discomfort to deer and other animals, which lack the treatments available to people. Deer are important hosts for several tick species, and the role of wild turkeys should also be evaluated scientifically.
The town should convene public-health officials, wildlife experts, and residents to develop a practical response. That effort should include tick monitoring, improved trail maintenance, deer management, and targeted treatment of heavily affected areas.
Aerial spraying could be considered if experts determine that a product and application method would be effective while posing acceptably low risks to people, pollinators, wildlife, and waterways. Claims that a product is “natural” or “eco-friendly” should be supported by evidence.
Residents deserve a transparent discussion of available measures, including their costs, risks, and likely effectiveness. Preserving open space is an investment in our community; making it safer for people and healthier for wildlife should be part of that commitment.
LAWRENCE J. KONCELIK
Must Do Better
North Sea
September 26, 2026
To the Editor,
My name is Laura McKinnon, and I am retired and now live in the Hamptons full time.
It has come to my attention that the East Hampton Town Board has okayed a plan to hire an organization to shoot approximately 100 additional deer more than what regular hunters take, using mostly bow and arrow. They will use money that had been allocated for tick control.
The town board is not inclined to do a proper scientific count of the deer to get a sustainable baseline allowable to maintain the environment. I feel that taxpayers will now be spending money blindly without a true measure of success. The town should be conducting a modern, cost-effective thermal drone survey, which is faster and cheaper than traditional counts.
It is scientifically proven that culling is a temporary measure at best, as deer have a “rebound” effect. With more available food to select individuals, does will then have two and three fawns in the spring. Again. a huge waste of money and not solving the long-term problem.
Not to mention the absolute inhumane and cruel aspect to all of this. We are so quick to blame the deer and other wildlife for our human-caused problems to the environment. Instead of addressing the core issues, we turn to the most lethal inhumane ways to “get rid of them.”
It is my belief that the deer are not truly overpopulated and the real problem is that the Hamptons are overdeveloped! Where are all the open fields and meadows for the deer to go to? Maybe if people stopped speeding on our country roads there would be fewer collisions!
There is nowhere for the deer to go, so they end up in people’s yards and crossing roads. We don’t even have any wildlife crossings for the most crucial areas.
I moved out here to be close to nature and to have wide-open wild places. I am saddened by the fact that there is so little if any of these wild places left.
We as humans must do a better job coexisting with our wild neighbors and stop viewing our native wildlife as nuisance game animals to be managed and culled as we see fit.
We need to look at the science and make wise lasting investments that satisfy all the citizens of the Hamptons, not just a select few.
We need to find in our hearts to take a more compassionate approach to living with nature.
Thank you,
LAURA MCKINNON
Showing Signs
Amagansett
September 28, 2026
To the Editor:
Two words jumped out at me from Christopher Walsh’s “Schaffer Re-Elected Suffolk Democratic Chair” — 26 years, the amount of time Mr. Schaffer has held the position. It is a rule of the universe and human nature that no one holds elected office for 26 years retaining the flexibility, honor, compassion, integrity, and sense of fairness they had (if they did) at the outset. People holding office for too long become corrupt, vain, superficial, selfish, and even monstrous. Hence the rationale for term limits.
Our town’s Democratic machine has been showing the signs for a decade. Every letter I write concerning them highlights one feature or another of having been in power too long, selfishly, with entitlement and a failure of imagination. Thus, it was particularly funny to read the words of Anna Skrenta, currently the human face of the dysfunctional town machine, vaunting “the courage to fight for change against long odds and bringing new life, energy and volunteers to the party.” Wow, good one, Anna!
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Overly Optimistic
Westwood, Mass.
September 26, 2026
Dear David:
Your article “Is Universal Health Coverage Within Reach in New York?” (Sept. 17) intrigued me, but it may give readers an overly optimistic impression of the New York Health Act’s near-term prospects.
I lived on the East End for more than 20 years and worked in New York health care finance for nearly two decades. Since moving to the Boston area in 2016, I have researched and written about health policy and co-founded the Better Healthcare Policy Group, whose members include health economists, physicians, health-system executives, and other policy leaders.
I have family members and close friends who believe passionately in single-payer health care. I share their conviction that the United States should provide better health coverage for everyone who lives here. Universal coverage is the goal; single-payer is one of several possible ways to finance and administer it.
The white paper’s projected savings for Suffolk County, Islip, and the Brentwood School District are not persuasive evidence that the act is affordable statewide. RAND Corporation’s 2018 analysis estimated total statewide savings of only about 3 percent by 2031. That modest estimate must be weighed against a wholesale disruption of how health care is financed and delivered across New York.
Vermont enacted a single-payer law and spent nearly three years trying to implement it before concluding in 2014 that the required financing was politically and fiscally unsustainable. California encountered similar problems. Its Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that a 2022 single-payer proposal could cost $494 billion to $552 billion annually, potentially increasing total health spending by as much as 14 percent. The bill stalled.
The New York proposal also has a long history. Richard Gottfried first introduced it in 1991, and versions have been introduced in every two-year session since 2015. Although it has passed the Assembly several times, it has never become law. The current bills introduced by Gustavo Rivera and Amy Paulin were re-referred to their health committees in January. Neither has received a hearing, committee vote, or floor action.
These experiences should not end the conversation about universal coverage. Rather, they should refocus it on approaches likely to make care more affordable, accessible, and effective.
The national shortage of primary-care physicians has led me to spend the past year working on ways states can strengthen primary care, the foundation of better access and health outcomes. East End residents could certainly benefit from stronger primary care.
Sincerely,
PETER A. WADSWORTH
Has Not, Nor Ever
Sagaponack
September 24, 2026
To the Editor,
Well, as I said at the end of my letter last week, “I wonder what your weekly unpaid opinion journalist will have to comment?” And, sure enough, he did! I must say he had very little to say, and did not dispute any of what I brought to your readers’ attention. He couldn’t and didn’t even try, because it was all true!
Israel is probably the only country in the world that has not, nor ever even contemplated, committing genocide or anything like it. And, by the way, almost no one seems to even know what the word means, even the Ivy League, supposedly, educated. But Israel certainly was and is the victim of at least seven or eight Middle East countries trying to do it to this smallest and one of the two most-important countries in the world — the country providing science, medicine, agriculture, manufacturing, and improving life and living for all. Check out the winners of all Nobel awards, etc., and all advances in civilization: none to Middle East countries, which contribute zero to the world.
Hamas and Hezbollah, among others, have been sending rockets and all sorts of attacks at Israel since its inception — thousands a year paid for and provided by Iran. Then Hamas did what we all know in its major sneak attack on innocent civilians and festival-goers.
The ones Israel killed were and are terrorists (90 percent), and the rest died as shields for the terrorists in homes and hospitals used as terrorist bases. And Israel and the Jews, by the way, have never had any interest in harming anyone, just trying to prevent anyone from harming them.
Iran violently killed over 30,000 of its own totally innocent civilians, the way all other dictatorships have done over the centuries, last year and who seems to care? There are true attempts at genocide happening in Africa, and who seems to care? There are civil and religious-type wars going on in 50 Middle East countries, and who seems to care?
Finally for now: Our friendly enemies such as Russia, China, and North Korea all have nukes. They haven’t and won’t use them, but if Iran gets one, and since their cult requires the killing of those not joining, submitting, to them, etc., they will use the weapon. So Israel and the United States, without the assistance of the entire rest of the world (also at risk), have to do what they are doing. There is no more dangerous country in the world and to the world than Iran!
LOUIS MEISEL
—
More that 77,000 people have died as a result of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and Gaza War. In October 2025, the Israel Defense Forces said that 22,000 of the Gaza residents killed up to that point were members of Hamas. Ed.
Mr. LaLota’s Vote
East Hampton
September 24, 2026
Dear. Mr. Rattray,
Speaking to the Naval Academy’s graduating class in 2025, J.D. Vance told them, “No more undefined missions. No more open-ended conflicts.” He then promised that he and President Trump would, “never ask you to do anything without a clear mission and a clear path home.” During both presidential debates in 2023, Trump said that he would have the war in Ukraine “settled” before his inauguration. So much for promises made by Vance and Trump.
Enter Nick LaLota. On Sept. 15, he voted for the third time against a House resolution directing the president to remove United States armed forces from hostilities with Iran in accordance with the War Powers Act. Despite Mr. LaLota’s negative vote, the resolution passed 220-204 with seven Republicans joining Democrats. Mr. LaLota was not among them.
Chris Gallant knows it’s time to end a war that never had a “clear mission and a clear path home.” As a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the Middle East, Mr. Gallant knows the nature of war.
A vote for Chris Gallant would send a message that it’s time for Congress to reclaim its constitutional powers as part of a government that operates under a system of checks and balances and not according to the whims of a would-be dictator. Your vote this November may decide if Congress gets this message.
SALVATORE TOCCI