To the editor:

Tradition is important. In its June 23 editorial, "War Crimes and the Gaza War," The New York Times continues its tradition of pretending dubious assertions libeling Israel are the gospel truth and applying outrageous double standards against our only real friend in the Middle East, a state which also happens to be the only true democracy in that area and the only Middle East state which share's America's concern for human rights.

To cite just two of many inaccuracies:

The editorial regurgitated the fictitious figure of 1,462 civilian casualties, without even mention that figure was conjured up by Hamas, which as a matter of policy tries to pass off every Arab casualty as civilian and ignoring the careful analysis by The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, which found the majority of casualties which could be categorized were members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and other terror groups. Given that those groups do not publicize their membership lists, it's likely the vast majority of the uncategorized casualties were also terrorists. Nor did The Times deign to note that even if Hamas' figures were accurate, they would still represent a low level compared to the post-World War II norm, astonishingly so given Hamas' strategy of storing weapons in civilian areas and launching rockets from schools, playgrounds and hospitals.

The editorial referred to the leaders of the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria as "moderate" and having "been willing to negotiate peace with Israel." This is contradicted by the fact the most "moderate" of those leaders, Mahmoud Abbas, walked away from negotiations in 2008 after being offered the equivalent of all the disputed territories and, for all practical purposes, has never returned.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to disagree with the closing assertion in the editorial, that "another war in Gaza seems inevitable." The perfidy of the commission created by the United Nations Human Rights Council, and of its creator and the United Nations itself, reinforces that apparent inevitability. They do the victims of the next war, Arab and Jew, no favor. Nor does the traditional anti-Israel bias of The New York Times.

Sincerely,

Alan Stein