The western branch of the Writers Guild of America weighed in on Hamas’ attack on Israel earlier this month in an internal statement to its members issued Tuesday that also attempted to explain why the union had not previously commented on the conflict. The memo, penned by the guild’s top officers, comes after more than 300 Hollywood screenwriters signed an open letter challenging its silence. The Tuesday letter apologized for the “tremendous pain” caused to the guild’s ranks by its silence. “It can be an imprecise science for a labor union to pick and choose where it weighs in on both domestic and world affairs,” the letter read, noting that, for example, the guild had not commented on the Russian invasion of Ukraine or previous terror attacks in Somalia and Pakistan. But the letter made clear that the union’s leadership was “horrified” by the Oct. 7 attacks, adding that they believed it important to “unequivocally state that antisemitism and Islamophobia have no place in this Guild.”