JOAN DORAN,
Sir, - When we switch on our television screens and see and hear what is happening on the West Bank, it is sickening in the extreme.
It is true, and who can deny it, that Mr Ariel Sharon has a duty and obligation to protect the lives and property of his people. This does not, however, give him the right to engage in a holocaust against the indigenous people of Palestine, who have lived and worked these lands for over a thousand years.
It is obvious to those of us looking in from the outside that there can be no military solution and unless he and his government start working now towards a political settlement, there can and will be no peace for the people of Israel.
If the Palestinian people decide that Mr Yasser Arafat is their representative, who is Mr Sharon to say otherwise? - Yours, etc.,
JOAN DORAN, Sutton Park, Dublin 13.
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Sir, - The Irish Times reached an all-time low in its standards with the publication (Weekend, April 13th) of Eddie Holt's piece "History Repeating". Since reading it almost seven hours ago, I haven't been able to stop myself laughing at his misleading premises, his faulty reasoning, and his erroneous conclusions. The only way I can stop this laughter is to write a serious letter to you.
Mr Holt maintains that both Judaism and Islam are guilty of "poisoning the hearts and minds" of some of their followers, and he condemns Islam for "fomenting a fundamentalism which colonises adherents' minds and makes them simultaneously homicidal and suicidal". These anti-Islamic and anti-Jewish slurs are completely unjustified, and are based on his misreading and misunderstanding of both of these religions. These baseless assertions are offensive to Muslims and Jews alike.
Mr Holt asserts that "peace can come only when human rights are placed above Jewish and Islamic 'rights'. If Mr Holt knew anything at all about these two religions he would know that they are driven primarily by an overwhelming concern and respect for human rights, with a paramount stress on moral behaviour in human relations.
Mr Holt is also quite fond of employing the "straw man" technique of argumentation, at first depicting his targets as inhumane, fundamentalist and dangerous, and then proceeding to trash them.
I would suggest that he undertake a very long course of study in logical argument and rational reasoning, and next time, before writing his column, acquire a much more thorough knowledge of the subject matter - rather than appear, as he has on this occasion, as if he has looked up his subjects in a bluffer's guide to religions. - Yours, etc.,
Dr IVOR SHORTS, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
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Sir, - Dundalk, Monaghan, Cavan, Ballyshannon and Letterkenny should be thankful that Ariel Sharon was not prime minister in London when the bombings occurred in Enniskillen, Belfast and Omagh. - Yours, etc.,
FRANK MURPHY, Old Quarry, Dalkey, Co Dublin.