I cannot let the unfair criticism Rev. David W. Good ("Listen to wisdom, call of conscience," June 14) leveled at Mark Fishman, my successor as president of PRIMER-Connecticut, and Harry Leiser, former president of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut, which represents the entire Jewish community, go unanswered.

Good falsely accuses them of being "a mouthpiece for Israel's Hasbara," which he misleadingly translates using the loaded term "propaganda." A more accurate translation is "explanation," as the word comes from the verb "lehasbir," to explain. So I will explain some of the truths the good reverend found too inconvenient to include.

He referred to Israel "killing" 120 people but conveniently neglected to mention more than 80 percent were members of Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and other terror groups firing at Israelis, lobbing explosives, burning fields and attempting to cross into Israel to attack civilians in nearby towns.

Rev. Good disparaged as merely "claims" the fact that Hamas uses ordinary people as human shields, but even Hamas has admitted doing so. Hamas even tried to send a seven-year-old child across the border with the obvious hope she would get killed. Blessedly, some of the Israeli troops he so casually maligns risked their own lives to get her safely back to her parents.

Critics of Israel are fond of saying most of the Gaza "protesters" are unarmed, unfazed by the facts that destroy their own arguments. Even those who are unarmed know they are being used to shield armed terrorists, making them complicit in the violence. With an allegedly small number of armed militants hiding themselves among tens of thousands of supposedly unarmed civilians during those violent riots, to have so few casualties among the supposedly innocent, with more than 80 percent of the casualties turning out to be terrorists, is a virtual miracle. This proves Israeli troops have been amazingly successful in separating armed terrorists even from their civilian shields.

One doesn't have to be a "mouthpiece for Israel's hasbara" to recognize Israel deserves praise for the way it has prevented Hamas from achieving its goal of a true bloodbath.

Alan Stein is the past president emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut, Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting. He splits his time between homes in Natick, Massachusetts and Netanya, Israel.