No two sides to evil

In his thoughtful column in last Thursday's Daily Herald, Jim Slusher addresses a number of issues faced by news media as they cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Evenhandedness is one of those issues.

My suggestion is that even though evenhandedness is a consideration, the top priority for any newspaper is to take a stand whenever evil or barbarism rears its ugly head.

The indiscriminate massacre and kidnapping of Israeli families was pure evil. Make no mistake about that. Has the Israeli response resulted in the deaths of many Gaza residents? Yes. And more deaths will come as the retaliation continues. But condemning the evil and hate that began this tragic series of events needs to be first and foremost.

And ways to mitigate and prevent future barbarism need to be extensively covered by knowledgeable journalists.

George Peternel

Arlington Heights