an attempt to answer my daughter's question regarding the response to Javier and Penelope letter re bombing of Gaza strip

For several reasons:

partly because of a fear of the violence that fanatical muslims promise to inflict upon the Jews and all other so-called nonbelievers in the Islamic faith, a promise which is dictated by the Qur'an;

partly due to the oversensitivity to anything sounding like anti-Semitism (many who are alive today and their families still have memories of the Holocaust deeply embedded in their lives and thus Jewish culture perhaps has taken on this defensive nature); 

also partly because, while orthodox Jewish communities often stay(ed) densely to themselves within other nations, today Israelites in particular have become very protective of their newly acquired nation;

yet not all Jews by any count favor this unconscionable obliteration of innocent civilians.

Read Joan Rivers recent response on this. sadly there are those that favor this bombing because they believe that Hamas must be destroyed at all costs, and innocent non-combatants are merely collateral damage.

Sadly, the US feels compelled to side with Israel in order to keep the US's foot perhaps in the MiddleEast. 

Note that the US also sides with the Ukraine government which is bombarding citizens in eastern Ukraine that are rebelling against fracking and the theft of their land for this and other resources. this has put us at odds with Russia; and what we are doing in Israel puts us at odds with all the Arab nations and muslim people's around the globe---not to forget those who are sensitive to the domestic abuses which we have recklessly ignored. 

We should encourage and applaud those like Javier and Penelope being especially in the limelight (and potentially therefore with much to lose) who stand up to such defensive reactions--- which reminds me of McCarthyism and the blacklisting of film industry figures in the 50s.  

Times are very unstable dear and now with the threat of the ebola virus out of control on the African continent things are getting really scary. Don't fall prey however to those who cry out "end of times" nonsense.  (side note: just recently I saw a guy with a portable microphone and speaker standing on the corner of 56th and Tyler spouting out such nonsense about getting saved and fighting evil and sin---homophobic crap). It may just be one more sign that one has to choose a side now on any given issue and do something about it, including religious fanaticism. And sadly in the case of Israel's relentless bombing of the Gaza strip, one can see that even Jews can become fanatical.