Madam, - It appears that most journalists covering the Israeli Palestinian conflict, with some notable exceptions, are at pains to adopt the politically correct stance, which is to view the Israelis as the aggressors and the Palestinians as long-suffering victims.
This approach leads them to view the most appalling murders and atrocities committed by Palestinians on civilians and children as somehow excusable. So any condemnation is normally tempered with qualifications which usually end up blaming the Israelis.
The assassination of Sheikh Yassin again exposes this attitude. So far virtually all the commentary and articles on this killing, including your own Editorial, refer to this heinous advocate of civilian and child murder, as the "spiritual director" of Hamas. This is akin to calling Hitler the spiritual director of the Nazis.
The saddest thing is that so many Palestinians and Arabs in other states apparently mourn his death. This expresses most eloquently the nature of the enemy against which Israel must defend itself; and unfortunately that enemy's ideology is far closer to that of al-Qaeda than many of us in Europe would like to admit. - Yours, etc.,
AIDAN McGRATH, Chestnut Court, Athlone, Co Westmeath.