Sir, – Paul Williams (December 30th), responding to Lara Marlowe's "How the Gaza war changed perceptions" (December 27th), is right when he claims that "Israel draws enough short straws in the Irish media". But does he really believe that killing 469 children and injuring 3,000 in Gaza was the best way to stop the rockets falling into Israel?
I often wonder what would have happened to this county had a hostile helicopter gunship crossed the Border in the early 1980s to provide a swift, brutal 30mm lesson to the people of Carrickmacross as to why violence was not the answer. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT O’ROURKE,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Paul Williams writes, “In reviewing the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, Lara Marlowe leaves out some very obvious points”.
Mr Williams airbrushes a raft of glaringly blatant Israeli-created facts on the ground such as the military occupation, dispossessions, expulsions, segregation, and the ongoing cruel blockading of Gaza; coupled to the vast discrepancy of power between the fourth most powerful military on the planet and a rag-tag of resistance equipped with “rockets” which seem to cause less actual damage to Israel than its own regularly repeated “mowing of the grass”. – Yours, etc,
D FLINTER,
Headford,
Co Galway.