PAUL KENNY,
Sir, - Brian Smith of Montreal (letters, April 26th) is, I can only charitably assume, another victim of the self-imposed censorship of the North American media, if one can judge from his alarmingly one-sided view of what is going on in the Middle East.
No right-minded person can possibly condone the tactics of the extremists on the Palestinian side. Of course it is right to feel sympathy for the Jewish (and non-Jewish) victims of the atrocities being committed by some Palestinians.
But neither is it right to use those atrocities to condone the disproportionate and indiscriminate response of the Israelis. Bulldozing homes, deliberately firing on medical personnel and similar actions, now well documented, are not matters to be proud of.
While Israel's doctrine has always been "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", it is wrong for a sovereign state to wage war on a whole - largely helpless - civilian population to exact their retribution. And retribution is all it can be, because their current tactics are bound to be counterproductive, merely fuelling the fires of fanaticism on the other side.
And finally, I would point out to Mr Smith - and all others who think like him - that criticism of Israel's excesses does not make a person "anti-Semitic". This is the sort of silly abuse that is so often used to try to stifle the proper moral outrage of concerned people.
Anyway, Arabs are Semites too. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL KENNY, Kimmage Road West, Dublin
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Sir, - On the occasion of Saddam Hussein's birthday in Iraq last weekend the best present he could have possibly received was from an unusual source.
The delaying and blocking of the UN's fact-finding team into the events that happened in the Jenin refugee camp by the Israeli Cabinet make a mockery of the UK and US's publicly stated belief that Iraq must be punushed severely if it fails to allow UN inspection teams to view its chemical and biological facilites. The chances of gatting anyone to go along with an attack on Iraq on these pretences have all but disappeared with Israel's latest salvo in its own "war on terror" - Yours, etc.,
JAMES McGRANE, Talbot Court, Athboy Road, Trim, Co Meath