Madam, – Gerry Moriarty wrote an interesting article (“Israelis feel they have ‘completely lost the battle’ in the media”, July 22nd) that gave recognition to suffering on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and on how Israel are losing the media war, especially after the atrocities in Gaza. He has assisted Israel’s media aims significantly, however, in closing the article by referring to the “1967 Arab invasion”. In reality there was no Arab invasion.This was of course when Israel illegally occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and it is this, still current, illegal occupation (see UN Resolution 242) that is the most significant single cause and perpetuator of the conflict.
– Yours, etc,
JOE O’BRIEN, Ecumenical Accompanier with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, Mourne View, Skerries, Co Dublin.
Madam, – Gerry Moriarty’s latest report (“Edging towards ‘Oslo for slow learners’,” July 23rd) from Israel appears to accept the Israeli government claim that its own violence is always a response to Palestinian aggression against its people. He refers to “Israeli counter-belligerence” and reports his impression that “when Israel is attacked, it will respond with Old Testament fury”.
The facts tell a very different story, however. In recent years, Israel has been responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian deaths, and must be considered the aggressor. As the Israeli historian Avi Shlaim writes: “The figures speak for themselves. In the three years after the withdrawal from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire. On the other hand, in 2005-07 alone, the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.”
The Israeli attack on the people of Gaza at the beginning of this year was not provoked by rocket fire, as was repeatedly claimed at the time. Hamas had enforced a six-month ceasefire in 2008 that saw a 98 per cent reduction in the number of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Israel broke that ceasefire in November by launching an unprovoked attack inside Gaza that killed six people.
Its subsequent onslaught claimed over 1,200 lives, the vast majority of them civilians. In the same period, 13 Israelis were killed, including three civilians.
When the number of Palestinian civilians killed by Israel is hundreds of times greater than the suffering on the other side of the border, it is perverse to speak of Israeli “counter-belligerence”. It is a matter of belligerence, plain and simple, directed against a civilian population that is completely at the mercy of the Israeli forces that rain down rockets, missiles and white phosphorous in brazen defiance of international law.
One would have searched in vain in Mr Moriarty’s report for any mention of the fact that Israel is occupying Palestinian land, not the other way round.
This is the crux of the matter – there can be no peace settlement as long as the Israeli political elite remains completely unwilling to withdraw from all the territories occupied in 1967. Benjamin Netanyahu has recently affirmed this refusal in the most unambiguous terms. No Palestinian leadership, no matter how moderate or willing to compromise, can ever be expected to make peace with Israel on the terms it is currently prepared to offer.
– Yours, etc,
DANIEL FINN, Francis Street, Dublin 8.