Madam, - Unfortunately, Alan Shatter's letter of August 10th does no favours to the cause of Israel, given his obviously one-sided and prejudiced contribution. As somebody who has always strongly asserted the right of Israel to exist as an independent nation state, I believe there is an obligation on like-minded advocates to be fair and balanced in their approach to this issue, given all of the sensitivities involved.
All right-minded people condemn Hizbullah for attacking Israel, and equally condemn Iran and Syria for supporting these attacks, if indeed they do. However, to take the recent escalation of violence out of context is no help in seeking to solve a very complex situation.
Nowhere in Alan Shatter's letter does he mention the illegal occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands, nor Israel's failure to revert to its 1967 borders. Nowhere does he mention Israel's illegal development of nuclear weapons, completely outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which has seriously destabilised the security of the region. Nowhere does he mention the illegal wall which has made life such a misery for so many Palestinians, and has been declared illegal by the World Court of Justice.
As we in this country have learned (after many bitter years of experience), acts of terrorism are, in general, desperate acts by desperate people. It is unlikely that there ever will be any lasting peace in the Middle East until the root causes of injustice are tackled by the international community in a balanced way. Yes, all the Arab countries, and Iran, should recognise the right of Israel to exist and should desist from any violent attacks against Israel. Likewise, Israel should revert to its pre-1967 boundaries, take down the illegal wall, and give up its illegal nuclear weapons.
Mr Shatter also criticises the Joint Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee for agreeing to visit Iran. He makes the outrageous (and silly) suggestion that the committee is loath to criticise the Iranian regime in case our invitation to Tehran (which he calls a "junket") might be withdrawn.
Mr Shatter might like to know that the committee recently met the Iranian Chargé d'Affaires informally. We informed him that two of the issues that we wished to raise in Tehran, if possible with the president, were Iran's failure to recognise Israel, and the issue of human rights in Iran. Mr Shatter obviously forgets that Ireland enjoys full diplomatic relations with the Republic of Iran and, as I understand it, there is no move to change this.
Perhaps he might also remember that, unlike Israel, Iran is a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and it has not yet, unlike Israel, developed nuclear weapons.
In my view it is absolutely right and proper that the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs should visit Iran to add its voice to those who strongly oppose the development of nuclear weapons in Iran. We will also be urging the Iranian government to recognise Israel and to desist from supporting any terrorist groups in the Middle East. Our approach to the issue of Iran, Israel and the Middle East question in general will be principled and balanced, and will stress the importance of international institutions, such as the United Nations. I find it a great pity that Israel and indeed Mr Shatter do not adopt a similar approach. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL MULCAHY TD, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.
Madam, - Bravo for Lara Marlowe (Opinion & Analysis, August 15th). Unlike the spineless prime ministers of the EU she has labelled the carnage in Lebanon for what it is: mass murder. Jewish groups have spent six decades pursuing Nazi war criminals - rightly so, for crimes against humanity should not go unpunished. Will these groups show the same zeal now that the war criminals reside in Israel?
It is truly sad that our great ally, the US, has allowed itself to be party to this carnage. Bush was right about one thing, though. Weapons of mass destruction do exist in the Middle East. Some of them have just been used and the result is appalling. - Yours, etc,
LAURENCE POWER, Celbridge, Co Kildare.
Madam, - Sayyed Nassan Nasrallah of Hizbullah holds a distorted view of what victory means. As a result of Hizbullah's illegal and ill-advised incursion into Israel last month more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians, have died, 800,000 have been displaced or made homeless, and more than $2 billion worth of damage has been done to Lebanon's infrastructure.
If this was a victory it was surely a Pyrrhic victory. - Yours, etc,
BRENDAN McMAHON, Elmwood, Naas, Co Kildare.
Madam, - Rory Miller and Alan Shatter "just can't figure out" why those calling for a boycott of Israel have "not seen the need to do the same in regard to any other country or conflict" (Opinion & Analysis, August 15th). They instance Ethiopia's recent intervention in Somalia, the Sri Lankan army's slaughter of children in civilian areas, the ongoing atrocities in Darfur, Chechnya, and elsewhere.
Firstly, it's encouraging that they recognise the kind of disgusting company in which Israel's criminal actions belong.
Secondly, they have no grounds for assuming that those of us who campaign against Israeli state terror have not in the past campaigned against atrocities perpetrated by other rogue states, or are not at present engaged in such campaigning.
Thirdly, there is in fact a substantive distinction between Israel and the states listed by Dr Miller and Mr Shatter: it is the only one purporting to be a "Western-style" democracy - indeed the very embodiment of civilisation in a barbarous region, "a light unto nations". For this reason, and because of the massive Western backing Israel receives, its crimes are committed in our name and we have a special responsibility to combat them. - Yours, etc,
RAYMOND DEANE, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Dame Street, Dublin 2.
Madam, - John Walsh (August 15th) argues that "it would be useful if armchair warriors who support Israel's action took the facts into account. Lebanon is the only Arab state which has succeeded in developing a viable democracy." I quite agree that we should take the facts into account, so let's look at the fact that in this democratic country, the government was too weak and consequently it allowed the Iranian satellite Hizbullah to form a state within a state south of the Litani river. Moreover, it did not carry out UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and disarm Hizbullah, and it failed to send its army into the territory bordering Israel.
Mr Walsh also refers to Israel's "indiscriminate slaughter of Lebanese civilians". Perhaps we should have a look at more facts. The preamble to UN Resolution 1701 uses the phrase "since Hizbullah's attack on Israel on 12 July 2006" and this has been accepted by all parties. It could have gone into the small detail that at the same time Hizbullah sent rockets into Northern Israel.
As for using the very emotive word "slaughter", let's remember that Israel's air force carried out more than 9,000 sorties into Lebanon; and while every life is sacred and every death is tragic the death toll was just over 1,000, which incidentally included more than 400 Hizbullah terrorists who do not wear uniform but are dressed as civilians. Had the bombing not been done without regard to avoid killing civilians, the death toll would have been many thousands. - Yours, etc,
HENRY GUTERMAN, Didsbury, Manchester, England.