Regarding Sarah Schulman’s “Israel and ‘pinkwashing”’ (Views, Nov. 24): For some people Israel can do no right. Israel is the only gay-friendly country in the Middle East, but for Ms. Schulman that’s just a smokescreen for “co-opting” people into a pro-Israel stance. It is offensive to suggest that one can’t make a judgment on Israel because it’s gay friendly, that we are part of a “pinkwash.” Hogwash.

Israel remains the only true democracy in the Middle East; its Arab population is the most satisfied with its lot of any in the region. Israel has offered Palestinians peace many times since 1947, always rebuffed, sometimes violently.

The fact that there are homosexuals in other Middle Eastern countries is irrelevant. Of course there are: There are homosexuals in every society. What matters is how they’re treated. The only place they are treated well, both in law and in practice, is Israel. Yet for Ms. Schulman Israel is just out to “blind us.” Shame on her.

Peter Forsythe, Hong Kong