Madam, - The media priority now given to the Israeli targeting of Hamas facilities in Gaza contrasts oddly with that not afforded to the eight-year rain of over 8,000 rockets and mortar shells launched against Israeli towns by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other armed elements within Gaza. This campaign of terror has continued unabated in spite of the complete Israeli troop and civilian withdrawal from Gaza in August-September, 2005. Indeed, more than 5,600 projectiles have been launched against Israeli communities since then.
Israel has targeted many training camps, rocket factories, storage sites, supply dumps, recruiting centres, headquarters, communications facilities and firing points in sites deliberately located within or near residential areas; yet average fatalities per site are low. It is therefore beyond doubt that Israel did not aim to injure any civilians. The great majority of those killed at such sites were not civilians but were involved in Islamic Jihad, Hamas, etc — the latest UN estimate suggests that about five of every six killed were armed Hamas members.
In contrast, the slaughter of two young Arab children, Hanin Abu Khoussa, aged 5, and her cousin, Sabah Abu Khoussa, aged 12, by rockets fired from northern Gaza, was, in Hamas terms, a mistake only in that those Jihadi rockets were aimed to slaughter Jewish children instead. Christmas Eve alone saw 60 rockets and mortars fired at Israeli communities from Hamas-ruled Gaza, with another 94 on December 27th.
The 250,000 civilians within Israel, in a state composed of people of Muslim, Bahai, Druze, Jewish and Christian faith, under daily risk of such terror attacks from Gaza, equals the combined population of Donegal, Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan being under daily rocket and mortar attack launched from Northern Ireland. No Irish Government ever would, or should, stand idly by in face of such a sustained campaign of atrocities against civilians - so why should the speakers of Hebrew be the only people on earth not allowed to protect themselves from such a campaign of terror? The civilian casualties are not only those physically maimed or murdered, but the huge number, in tens of thousands, terrorised and reduced to nervous wrecks by such ongoing bombardment - and that is the precise long-term strategy of this cowardly Hamas war on civilians.
It behoves Irish and other EU politicians and commentators to focus on this unending and indefensible rocket and mortar barrage, which is the sole cause of the drastic Israeli emergency surgery, designed precisely to remove the future capability for such terror, instead of just reacting to the emotive images of stretchers. The range and number of Israeli operations is proportionate to the need to remove the real threat to her own people from the Hamas war machine.
And we also need to confront the unchanged and genocidal Hamas ideology. "The only answer to the Palestinian question is Jihad," according to article 13 of its August 1988 charter; and: "Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement." - Yours, etc,
Madam, - In 2002, in advance of Ariel Sharon's so-called "Defensive Shield" campaign, an Israeli army officer famously advised "internalis[ing] the lessons of earlier battles — even, however shocking it may sound, even how the German army fought in the Warsaw ghetto".
Yet even this ignoble precedent has been surpassed by the present onslaught on Gaza, whereby an essentially defenceless population of 1.5 million people, a protected population under the terms of the fourth Geneva Convention, has been hermetically isolated for more than three years, starved of food, fuel and medication, then subjected to a massive bombardment by the air-force of the world's fourth most powerful army. This with the blessing of the venal head of a quisling Palestinian regime (Mahmoud Abbas), a venal neighbouring dictatorship (Egypt), the entire European Union with its preposterous claim to honour human rights, the outgoing failed president of the US, and (judging by his conspicuous silence) the incoming president of that country, the saintly Mr Obama and his entire AIPAC-backed cabinet-in-waiting of Clintonite has-beens. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Is it too cynical to suggest that this latest Israeli attack in Gaza is designed to eliminate all traces of Hamas, so that the future President Obama has only to negotiate with the remnants of the Palestinian people? Surely the president-elect was consulted before the all-out war against Hamas. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - It's amazing how the Israeli blockade of Gaza prevents food and medical aid from being brought in and yet the Palestinians seem to have no trouble getting all the components needed to make rockets for attacking Israeli civilians. Not to mention all the guns and commando gear the "security" force of Hamas seems to have.
If Palestinians want the world to feel sorry for their plight then, given that there are no refugee camps in any land controlled by Israel, they might start by asking their fellow-Arab "brother" governments in Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, where these refugee camps are actually based, to give the people living there - some of whom have been there since those same governments annexed the land meant for a Palestinian state in 1948 and told Palestinians to fight or flee - proper rights and documentation so that they can get jobs and move into proper homes and educate their children.
I personally feel little sympathy for the Palestinian cause,in the same way that I have no sympathy for the IRA cause - even though, as an Irish person, I understand perfectly well the history of my country.
If there are ordinary, non-violent, moderate Palestinians who want to create a democratic, non-corrupt, non-repressive, forward-looking modern state - the first Arab/Muslim state to protect the human rights of all its citizens equally - then those people need to stand up and be counted. They need to let the world know that while they have issues with Israel, on a political level, they utterly reject all of the violence carried out by Hamas, and others - just as time and time again ordinary, decent Irish people, politicians and church leaders of all sides - took to the streets to make it known to the world that we utterly rejected what the IRA - and others on both sides - were doing and that they were not acting on our behalf. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - I strongly object to The Irish Times allowing Zion Evrony, Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, a half-page of newsprint to present Israeli propaganda (Opinion, December 29th). Is it your policy to support Israeli propaganda? The Irish Times also allowed space for it when Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, an invasion condemned the world over.
Israel is an apartheid state that continues to take by force land that belongs to the Palestinians. An apartheid state that continues to prevent movement of Palestinians in and out of Gaza and the West Bank. An apartheid state that prevents humanitarian aid from reaching ordinary men, women and children. It justifies this apartheid and oppression of human rights on the grounds of "security". Israel is one of the worst violators of human rights in the world and the country with the worst record of ignoring UN resolutions and international law.
It treats the Palestinian people worse than animals and justifies the current military operation like it justified the invasion of Lebanon - as "the only option". Absolute rubbish. Israel does not want peace, because if there were peace it couldn't continue with its ruthless oppression of the Palestinian people. Israel wants to continue the hostilities so that it can eventually eliminate any hope of a Palestinian state. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - The Palestinians of this generation now have a Deir Yassin to match the Sabra and Shatila of their parents and grandparents. The Israeli ambassador says, in effect, that Israel "had no option" other than to butcher over 300 people in Gaza. International law is not optional. Neither are the Geneva conventions. Israel has always had options regarding its treatment of the Palestinians and has always chosen violence and brutality over respect, humanity and sanity. - Yours, etc,