Letters

War and conflict in the Middle East

We are on the brink of wider disaster

Mon Jan 15 2024 - 00:06

Sir, – People Before Profit clearly don’t “do” irony. Pat Leahy quotes them as dismissing internal opposition in Israel to the current prime minister by saying “Israeli democracy is a contradiction in terms” (“People Before Profit calls for total dismantlement of Israeli state”, News, June 12th).

Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Arab citizens can vote in free and fair elections. Arab parties served in the last government coalition of prime minister Yair Lapid.

In Gaza and the West Bank, elections have been cancelled.

Egypt has just conducted an election between the incumbent president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and a slew of candidates of whom nobody had heard, thus ensuring his victory.

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Jordan is ruled by descendents of the absolute monarch installed by the departing British in 1923. Its parliament is advisory only.

There is no democracy in war-torn Syria and Lebanon is a failed state. After the crushing of the “Arab Spring” movement, there isn’t a single fully functioning democracy anywhere in the Arab world.

Despite all this PBP believes their single state Palestine of seven million Jews and seven million Arabs will thrive as a democracy.

PBP clearly “does” optimism. – Is mise,

KENNETH HARPER,

Burtonport,

Co Donegal.

A chara, – Given that the vast majority of Israelis will never agree to being absorbed into a Palestinian state, could someone from People Before Profit please explain how they envisage such a state being “democratic”?

Meanwhile, they might also indicate how they’ll convince the two Palestinian regimes to agree to be secular as well as democratic. Neither Hamas nor Fatah have shown the remotest inclination to be either. – Is mise,

CIARÁN Ó RAGHALLAIGH,

Cavan.

Sir, – The world, it seems, is in absolute turmoil.

US and UK strikes on Houthis in Yemen and in other theatres like Syria Iraq, where Iran-backed terrorists are fighting on many fronts, could see an expansion of a Middle East war involving many countries.

Could we see a world war on many fronts?

The reality is that while there is no peace settlement between the Palestinian and Israelis, with the ongoing conflict in Gaza, countries in some Western democracies will be forced to takes sides, whether through accident or allegiance.

Neutral countries like Ireland are now forced to make a decision as to who they support.

The ongoing war in Ukraine where Russia is being supplied by North Korea and Iran, with missiles and drones, shows this war involves many protagonists with no end in sight.

Will we see an escalation or heightened security at our ports or airports given that there are many lone wolves, brainwashed by ideology or extremist faith, that could bring this conflict to our cities, town and villages in European countries?

We have seen what can happen as happened in Paris and St Denis in November 2015 by Islamic extremists and as recently near the Eiffel Tower in December 2023.

Attacks in London in 2005 and 2019, El Paso in the US, and the synagogue killings in Halle, Germany, also in 2019, show the inherent threat posed by those who are willing to take the Middle East conflict to Europe and elsewhere.

South Africa’s genocide case, brought to the International Court of Justice, will only increase the division and the sense of injustice, highlighted by victims of the Israeli and Arab conflict, and will force countries in Western democracies to take sides.

The question for all of us is who will be brave enough to stand as peacemaker given the alliances and distrust by an already discredited UN Security Council.

We are on the brink of disaster; now is a time for cool heads and deep reflection. – Yours, etc,

CHRISTY GALLIGAN,

Letterkenny,

Co Donegal.