Madam, - According to Seán Gannon ( Opinion & Analysis, November 24th), "Jerusalem has spent 13 years attempting to negotiate a withdrawal from the bulk of the disputed lands [ the Occupied Palestinian Territories] and would have done so by now if the Oslo process had not been cynically scuppered by Ramallah´s attempt to bolster its bargaining position with explosive belts and bullets."
This sentence repays detailed analysis. Firstly, the cunning use of "Jerusalem" to refer to the Israeli government silently upholds that government's claim that Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv, is its capital - a claim rejected by the international community as counter to international law. Secondly, under international law the lands in question are not "disputed" - a term with no legal meaning in this context - but "occupied". The fact that Israel and the US government use the former language doesn't lend it legitimacy.
Thirdly, it is universally agreed that the Oslo process was scuppered by Israel's failure to implement it in the early years. Instead of enjoying the improvement in their lives promised by Oslo, Palestinians found their freedom of movement curtailed by a growing network of road-blocks, while the number of illegal settlements built on their lands more than doubled.
Mr Gannon admits that "the carnage in Sderot notwithstanding, it is true that relatively few Israelis have so far been killed by Qassams. . ." If this is the case, to which "carnage" is he referring? Not, apparently, the recent slaughter of 19 Palestinian civilians in Beit Hanoun by an "errant" Israeli shell which Mr Gannon describes as "a tragedy of terrible proportions" - thus implying that it lay somehow outside human agency - but the killing of a single Israeli woman, admittedly a sad and futile event.
Putting things in perspective, it should be recalled that Qassam shells - which I condemn - have killed six Israeli civilians in as many years. However, on June 9th alone an Israeli shell killed seven Palestinian civilians on Gaza Beach, including an 18-month-old girl and an infant boy.
Since the capture by Palestinian militants of an Israeli soldier on June 25th, Israel's military assault on Gaza has resulted in some 350 Palestinian deaths, mostly civilian, including 64 children and 15 women.
Mr Gannon will no doubt reply that these killings were "accidental", but when "accidents" occur daily they take on a systematic character and hence become policy, and a criminal policy at that.
Mr Gannon's article never once refers to Israel's obligations under international law, which it has flouted more brazenly and over a longer period of time than any nation on earth. It is clear that he respects only Israeli law, which as far as the captive Palestinian population is concerned is the law of the jungle. It is time he stopped blaming the victims. - Yours, etc,
RAYMOND DEANE, National Executive, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Dame Street, Dublin 2.