Reading the various pro-divestment letters in your publication purporting to educate the public on the realities of life in Israel reminded me of the propaganda coming out of the old Soviet Union which purported to describe life in the United States wherein every micro-story of murder and racial discrimination was taken in isolation, blown up to the macro and used to give a distorted view of the nature of justice and government in America as compared to the old Worker's Paradise. The propagandists had to take a microscope to America's barnacles because anyone who actually stood back and compared the two societies in toto would find the portrayal of America and its comparison to the Soviet Union laughable. Thus it is with Israel's critics. Your Mayor is to be congratulated for going to Israel and seeing things - in the macro and the micro - for himself. Israel is an ally, a friend and a democracy. Is Somerville getting a good return on its investment? That's the only question that needs answering.

The bottom line here is that the divestment campaign is the effort of a group of anti-Israel hobbyists for whom the World Championship Red Sox and Patriots hold insufficient appeal. Their interest is not Somerville and its community - if that were the case they would have taken "no" for an answer the first time rather than resurrecting and flogging this poor dead horse. Somerville the community is merely the stepping stone for feeding their pet effort - delegitimizing Israel. Nothing else matters.

The war against Israel has caused untold suffering across the Middle East. No good can come from this fight. In spite of what some people seem to want, let's leave that conflict over there...and out of our Massachusetts communities.