I am always fascinated by the tunnel vision of pro-Palestinian individuals like the author of the May 17 letter, "Consistency needed in human rights policy," which allows them to ignore certain facts. Therefore, in the interest of providing balance, please consider the ones presented here.

By freely choosing Hamas, which has, by both word and deed, worked toward its avowed goal of destroying Israel, the Palestinians have in a very real sense become the cause of their own present-day fate. Would the United States allow any group that advocated its destruction the freedom to carry out such a plan? Would any country do so? I think not!

Consider, too, the response of the Gazans toward Israel to provide them a generous level of autonomy. It was to shoot at the departing Israeli troops and to continue the hostility by sending rockets into Israeli territory ever since 2005.

Since the author of the prior letter obviously lives in America and enjoys practicing his freedom of expression in the op-ed section of this newspaper, I would conclude that he would not want to live in a place where his family was the continued target of hatred, as do the Israelis.