Cats make great neighbors
Cats make great neighbors
There has been a number of letters criticizing those who care for stray island cats. In the neighborhood where I live in South Kona, there are about 160 families. People seem to just drop cats off here and others leave them when they move out of the area.
Through neighborhood participation and the generous spay and neutering performed by AdvoCats, all cats living here have been fixed. Mahalo, AdvoCats!
We have had no new kittens born in over a year. And yes, we have neighbors who volunteer to refill the feeders discreetly located throughout our area. Some neighbors complain about the rats. No one who has cats nearby does. We now have six cats who have adopted our feeding bowls. Most are leery of people so no one can get near them. However, the cats leave presents for us in the form of dead rats and mice.
We would be run over by rats if not for the cats. So we give them thanks for their service by putting fresh water and food out. Now, if only the birds who steal the cat food would leave us the same kind of presents.
Cindy Whitehawk
South Kona
Gabbard’s right in Israel support
I read with dismay Jake Jacobs’ column of May 4 wherein he sharply criticizes U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s support of America’s Israeli policy.
Jacobs’ criticism is naïve, misguided and historically flawed. Radical Islam’s hatred of freedom, and liberalism of the West is not a modern phenomenon rising from the birth of Israel. Nor is the ideology behind ISIS new, its brand of Islam has erupted countless times over the centuries since the rise of Islam.
Islamist hostility toward the West and Israel will not disappear if we simply abandon Israel and close Guantanamo. Jacobs asks the reader to “imagine living on a land your forebears had lived on for hundreds of years” and then being displaced.
Jews can imagine, they have lived in Israel continuously for over 3,000 years. From 1948 to the ‘70s, nearly a million Jews were forced from the homes of their forebears in Muslim countries. Many millions of Jews, Christians and other nonbelievers, (all which thrived in the region prior to the rise of Islam) were subjugated, enslaved, murdered and displaced by Islamists over the centuries.
Imagine the fate of the Jews in Israel should America abandon Israel and leave her to the mercy of her Islamist neighbors. Islamists hold a special hatred for Jews that has persisted for centuries. Hamas will only accept the total annihilation of Israel as stated in their charter.
While most Muslims may not adhere to the extreme Islamist ideology, that ideology is what drives politics today in many Islamic states. Behind the vast majority of violent terrorism that infects the world we also find that extreme Islamist ideology. It is against that ideology which Israel must defend herself.
Rep. Gabbard’s support of America’s policy toward Israel is absolutely correct.
Gary Post
Kailua-Kona