Madam, - The issuing of a watered-down statement by EU foreign ministers on Tuesday is an appalling indictment of the failings of Western democracy. The West is paralysed by its desire to preserve diplomacy at all costs. The lack of cohesion and the absence of moral conscience on this Middle East crisis is repeatedly demonstrated by the miserable efforts of Condoleezza Rice, Tony Blair and EU foreign ministers.
Meanwhile the innocent citizens of Lebanon are slaughtered. How is it possible to falter before the horror of children's bodies being removed from rubble? Child after child after child. We fail them and we fail ourselves by refusing to challenge US and British support for Israel's war in Lebanon as a severe breach of international humanitarian law. - Yours, etc,
D WATKINS, Clifden, Co Galway.
Madam, - I would like to congratulate Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who ensured that, along with France and Sweden, Ireland was one of the EU countries calling in the strongest terms for a ceasefire resolution at the EU foreign ministers' meeting on Tuesday.
Now that our Government has rediscovered its conscience on the Middle East, may I urge it to continue along this road, both at an EU and national level? At the EU level there is no excuse any more not to call for the suspension of the Euro-Med agreement which gives Israel favoured trade relations with the EU.
Furthermore, while the plight of Palestinians has been obscured by the equally horrific treatment Lebanon is now receiving from Israel, this plight is only worsened by EU sanctions against the democratically elected government of Palestine; it is past time these sanctions are lifted.
On the national level, delaying the accreditation of a new Israeli ambassador until Israel releases the kidnapped Palestinian parliamentarians and withdraws from Lebanon would send a clear signal as to how unacceptable Israeli behaviour is to Irish people. - Yours, etc,
DAVID LANDY, St Thomas Road, Dublin 8.
Madam, - Vincent Browne (Opinion, August 2nd) pretty much blames Israel for all that is wrong in the Middle East.
He quotes from the Bible and from history but there has to be a point when history is left in the past. The Middle East needs to move on and face the reality of the existence of Israel, existence which is mandated by the United Nations as a sovereign independent state.
Why are there so many women and children among the casualties in southern Lebanon? Where are the men? How do you deal with people who are willing to leave defenceless women and children while they go into hiding? What is the point of having a ceasefire and signing yet another peace agreement when the basic principle of Israel's right to exist in peace is not accepted by those who will be party to such an agreement? Such false agreements solve nothing because they fail to address the issue and just postpone the next crisis for a few more years.
At what point will people realise that a stand needs to be taken against state-sponsored terrorism? The state of Lebanon allowed these terrorists to build a state within a state and never asked for help in controlling them.
The UN as usual sits on its hands for years doing nothing and then appeasers, like Mr Browne, want us to believe that there can be a war without civilian casualties.
It seems we have learnt absolutely nothing from the 20th century. From the comfort and safety of our homes in the West we cast judgment on Israel, but when Iran fires a nuclear weapon will we then finally get the message that we ought to have faced up to Muslim terrorists once and for all? By then it will be far too late. - Yours, etc,
DESMOND FITZGERALD, Canary Wharf, London E14.
Madam, - Vincent Browne has shown great courage in speaking the truth about the root causes of the conflict in Palestine. Watch now as the slur of anti-Semitism is hurled at him. Over the years, this has been a persistent tactic of those who wish to keep hidden the truth of what was done to the Arab people of Palestine at the time of the foundation of the state of Israel. - Yours, etc,
MARTIN LOUGHNAN, Skerries, Co Dublin.
Madam, - On reading Michael D Higgins's latest contribution to your Letters page (August 2nd), you would have to conclude that he could survive as a politician only in somewhere like Ireland. We can sit quite comfortably off the west coast of Europe, safe from any real military threat, pontificating to the rest of the world on the rights and wrongs of their actions. People like Michael D Higgins are of no use at all when faced with violence, because they believe in meaningless UN resolutions, statements of condemnation and anti-war protests, but not action. That's not much use if your neighbours, such as Iran, are striving to wipe you off the map.
Israel, like any other state, is responsible for the defence of its citizens and it has every right to continue its actions against Hizbullah until it is satisfied that any threat to its citizens is removed. If Hizbullah members decide to use residential areas to launch attacks, then it is they, and not the Israelis, who are putting Lebanese civilians at risk. - Yours, etc,
KEVIN WINDLE, Glencairn View, Leopardstown, Dublin 18.
Madam, - On April 18th, 1996 the Israeli defence forces were responsible for the massacre of 106 people in the village of Qana - refugees in a UN compound seeking safety from Israel's third invasion of Lebanon - malignantly named "Operation Grapes of Wrath". More than half the dead were children. This was initially claimed by Ehud Barak to be an "unfortunate mistake" but was subsequently proven to be a fully authorised bombardment of the compound with knowing consequences.
Similar scenarios are being played out again and while Israel has an absolute right to defend itself against terrorist attacks, no right of self-defence can be invoked to justify the recent slaughter at Qana, the killing of the UN observers, the hundreds of civilian deaths and the mass destruction of civilian infrastructure in southern Lebanon. Israel's response to Hizbullah is grossly disproportionate and can objectively be described as state terrorism.
There is an immediate need for a ceasefire and a realisation on the part of Israel that its response to conditions in the Middle East is a vital ingredient that sustains Islamofascist organisations such as Hizbullah and Hamas. The past 20 years have seen both these organisations grow in popularity to a point where they are both represented in governments. A sustainable ceasefire or peace is not one that can be defined exclusively by Israel in its own interests. - Yours, etc,
Cllr JIM O'LEARY, (Fine Gael), Parkvale, Dundrum, Dublin 14.
Madam, - Why should Israel kowtow to the United States, Britain and the EU and call a halt to its military activities in Lebanon? Given that it has been terrorised by the belligerent forces of Islamic fundamentalism, its decision to go to war seems logical and entirely reasonable. Certainly, the conflict in Lebanon is far easier to justify than the US-led invasion of Iraq.
We can at least be grateful that the current, limited IDF attacks have served to flush from cover the inherent anti-Semitism of many Europeans, not least in correspondence to The Irish Times. The stark and unpalatable reality is that disproportionate response is the only way to win a war, otherwise all conflicts would result in stalemate.
All right-minded people should support Israel in its actions, and let the Jewish state know that we stand squarely behind them. - Yours, etc,
JOHN DYLAN O'DONOGHUE, Ard Keale, Rochestown, Cork.
Madam, - Further to the report in your edition of August 2nd that Israel is now issuing telephone warnings before it bombs, I would like to commend it for raising its standard of morality to that of the IRA. - Yours, etc,
FINIAN McCLUSKEY, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.
Madam, - Martyn Turner's cartoon in your edition of August 1st is deeply offensive - and not only, I am sure, to believing Christians.
Qana is heartbreaking enough without the addition of such gross irreverence towards Christ.
Shame on you for publishing this tasteless effort. - Yours, etc,
SEÁN MAC CÁRTHAIGH, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.