High taxes hurt local economy

Re: “Montgomery County lost 5,000 jobs last year because of high taxes,” April 22

The state of the economy in Montgomery County is on a downslide, and the loss of more than 5,000 jobs in Montgomery County this past year is only a clear indication of that. The reason for that is the high taxes that Montgomery County imposes on its citizens and small businesses, which caused the loss of so many jobs here.

The county’s liberal policies continue to encourage illegal immigrants to migrate here, and while the county is overtaxing its hard-working citizens, it provides benefits to illegal immigrants.

When the county cuts services, it makes wrong choices. It cuts police services, such as a recommendation to eliminate all community outreach police services. … The right thing to do would be crack down on illegal immigrants and deny them benefits and reduce taxes instead of the constant unnecessary increases.

The county is going in the wrong direction, and soon citizens will start moving out of the county because of the excessive taxes that the county imposes on them. …

Al Eisner

Wheaton

Israel at 60 tainted by darkness

Re: “The glory of Israel at 60,” May 14

Wednesday’s editorial assumes that your readership knows nothing of the political origins or conditions of Israel beyond that which comes from official propaganda. The 700,000 Palestinians who fled in 1947 did so for fear of their lives, as Ilan Pappe’s book … and Benny Morris’ two books on the subject make perfectly clear. The hundreds of villages they left behind were not abandoned property.

Israel is more accurately described as a military regime than a democracy: Changes of government do not lead to the dismantling of illegal and expansionist settlements, but to offering the outside world the same prevarications in slightly different language. The parties simply take turns calling one another names, but pursuing the same aggrandizement.

With its tens of thousands of political prisoners, its gross discrimination against non-Jews, its continued expropriation of properties and water resources, and its shameful treatment of the inhabitants of Gaza and the West Bank, Israel does not exemplify the Western understanding of individual rights.

The cynical “Facts on the Ground” argument — we got the bulldozers, we got the wall, and we’re getting the U.S. to pay for them — cannot be disguised as justice, democracy, or in America’s interests.

Coilin Owens

Alexandria