To the Editor:

It’s only prudent to question government spending, especially when multi-trillion-dollar programs are being pushed at a time when debt has quickly skyrocketed to unprecedented levels and threatens the foundation of America’s economy. However, in your Oct. 14 commentary section, Jeff Klein uses false information and misleading language in supporting Ayanna Pressley’s misguided opposition to a relatively small outlay that would further American interests in the volatile and vital Middle East while saving the lives of both our Israeli friends and Palestinian Arabs – who are in no way our friends.

One example of many: Klein writes that “US military aid has been used repeatedly to bomb Gaza and to attack Israel’s neighbors,” but he conveniently neglects to mention that all those efforts were directed at terrorists, terror facilities, and terror bases.

In May, Gaza terrorists launched more than 4,300 rockets at Israel in just 11 days. Every one of those rockets was targeting civilians and would have killed many were it not for the amazing Iron Dome [Israel’s all-weather missile defense system – Ed.]. Debris from one of those rockets actually fell in a park just a few feet from a bicycle path I often use.

While those Hamas rockets only cost a few hundred dollars each to produce, it’s exorbitantly expensive to intercept them, with each interceptor costing close to a hundred thousand dollars. Which leaves two questions:

1. Do we want to help save lives? Funding the Iron Dome interceptors saves lives.

2. Are we willing to use what for the United States is a negligible amount of money to help save those lives?

Klein also refers to what he calls “a cruel blockade of the Gaza Strip.” There is none. Israel transfers massive amounts of goods to Gaza every day. Except for some disruptions when Hamas rockets damaged power lines and attacked the transfer points, it even continued to supply Gaza with food, medical supplies, fuel, and electricity while Hamas was bombarding Israel with rockets, One would be hard pressed to find another example of a country doing that much to help an enemy trying to destroy it.

– Alan Stein, Natick, and Netanya, Israel