What you’re saying: Scott Washington and Peter Reitzes | News & Observer

What if it had been the Inn?

Kudos to the quick response to Friday night’s fire at the historic Bellevue mill in West Hillsborough from so many area firefighters who helped contain the blazing inferno and the first responders who helped make sure area residents and business owners were safe! Great work and cooperation from everyone involved! Glad no one was hurt and nearby businesses and neighbors homes were saved.

If there’s anything positive that comes out of this, I hope it adds some urgency to resolving and moving forward on Hillsborough’s Colonial Inn on King Street, closed about the same number of years as the mill (which closed in 2000), so that a similar fate, accidental or otherwise, doesn’t befall the Colonial Inn.

With so many businesses and homes so close to the Inn in the densely populated residential and historic district along King Street, it’s fortunate that fire hasn’t been a problem before now.

The haunting specter of the inferno at the Bellevue mill raises reasonable concerns. Would installation of smoke alarms throughout Hillsborough’s Colonial Inn be a wise precaution as a means of ensuring public safety and preventing a similar disaster?

Israel’s offers rejected

In her guest column Ellie Kinnaird referred to Gaza as an “open air prison” and talked about “Israeli occupation” (CH, May 17). She neglected to mention that since 2000 Israel has offered the Palestinians viable and dignified statehood a number of times. Palestinians have never accepted statehood, have never made a counteroffer to Israel, have responded with increased terrorism following every offer of statehood and elected Hamas, a terrorist organization, to power.

Israel’s offers have been so reasonable that Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and many other countries encouraged the Palestinians to accept statehood. Ms. Kinnaird has ignored Israel’s tremendous efforts to achieve peace and has privileged Palestinian rejectionism and terrorism.

Ms. Kinnaird reported that Palestinians fire “a few rockets a week” at Israel and “have only stones, and now knives, to express their frustration and anger.” The Israeli Defense Forces report, “Since 2001, more than 15,200 rockets and mortars, an average of over three rocket attacks every single day, have targeted Israel.” Imagine how the United States would respond if Canada or Mexico were firing three rockets a day at Chapel Hill for 15 years.

The Israeli military has reported destroying at least 32 Palestinian tunnels since 2014. Such tunnels are used to kill and kidnap Israelis. Ms. Kinnaird is silent on these issues. She complains about the defensive barrier Israel has constructed but says nothing of the Palestinian suicide killers the barrier has successfully stifled.

Ms. Kinnaird wrote “the protesters’ message to the Council and our town” is “to get out the truth about the terrible suffering of the Palestinians.” She complains, “American voices are silenced out of fear of being accused as anti-Semitic.” Ms. Kinnaird could have been much more forthright about the nature of the protests. There are approximately 95 publicly available and archived emails which were sent to the mayor and council urging them to “cancel the International Visitors’ Leadership Program delegation from Israel.” Ms. Kinnaird says nothing about her fellow protestors who are calling to silence dialogue and boycott Israel.

Would protestors urge the mayor and council to cancel delegations from Egypt, Mexico, China, Russia or any other country? Doubtful. Do protestors actively boycott any other countries besides Israel? Doubtful. Holding Jews and Israelis to a different standard than everyone else is anti-Semitic no matter how much the term concerns Ms. Kinnaird.

Remembering the great lengths Israel has gone to make peace goes a long way towards better understanding the current dispute.

The length limit was waived.