Madam, - Criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza has been met with a common chorus in response, from the Letters page of this newspaper to the high counsels of the White House: "But Hamas started it!"
What could be more representative of the futile and tragic nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict than this childish recycling of the ultimate reductio ad absurdum?
There have been grave wrongs committed on both sides. Yet no injury thus far sustained by Israel could license such a devastating reprisal. The convoluted and morally complex history that prefigures the assault on Gaza pales when ranged against this brute fact - that a powerful and wealthy state is laying waste to its defenceless and impoverished neighbour. To children trapped in rubble, and to mothers sunk in grief, the playground blame-game means nothing.
Israel cannot claim that its actions have been driven by Hamas; its decisions are its own. In the last analysis, Israel must stand accountable for what it has wrought in Gaza - not only to the world, but to itself. - Yours, etc,
SEÁN COLEMAN,
Lindisfarne Lawn,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.
Madam, - The devastating news that at least 30 people were killed and 55 injured when Israeli artillery shells landed outside a UN-run school in Gaza make Israel's claims to self-defence more hollow than ever.
In her statement during the visit of the European delegation, Israel's foreign minister Tzipi Livni said plainly that any peace agreement with "terrorists" would put peace at risk. How Orwellian. Clearly, Israel's definition of peace is an end to hostilities while maintaining its military rule, cutting off the West Bank from the Gaza Strip, controlling the borders and Jerusalem, while leaving the settlement blocs intact and maintaining control over water, lands and territorial continuity.
This is the most Israel is prepared to offer the Palestinians: you either accept a statelet which depends on our good will, or you get no "peace".
As a dual citizen of Israel and Ireland, I join thousands of Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs, in Israel and abroad, in expressing our total revulsion and protest at the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Even though demonstrations held in Israel have been met with police brutality, Israelis continue to demonstrate, saying loud and clear "Not in our name", and calling for immediate Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. - Yours, etc,
RONIT LENTIN,
Leinster Road,
Dublin 6.
Madam, - I am a retired psychologist/social worker (who lived and studied in Dublin) living in Sderot, Israel.
I volunteer here and among other things I belong to a local peace group called Othervoice. We meet and try to influence our friends, local and further afield, to support every possible means of achieving a just peace as quickly as possible. Every week we speak to friends in Gaza by cell phone and try to give them whatever moral support we can. We also support Israel's right to defend itself.
I am, however, deeply concerned by the quantity of hatred towards Israel I see and hear through the world's media from peace-loving, humanistic, liberal people, fuelled as it must be by sheer ignorance of, or unwillingness to consider, a simple and basic fact.
We in Israel have no insoluble argument with our peace-loving Arab cousins and want to do everything to bring about a peaceful two-state solution for all our people.
We do, however, have a serious and obvious problem with fundamentalist Islam in the form of Iran, al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hizbullah and others, whose continually stated aims include the complete destruction of Israel.
We are at war with them to save ourselves. Some Palestinians and many Arab states are at war with them. And when they perpetuate war crimes by hiding within civilian populations, using children as suicide bombers, firing mortars from schools and hospitals at schools and hospitals (such as firing at Sderot between 7.50 and 8am each day to catch the children on their way to schools and kindergartens), we hear no words of abhorrence from the world. I would remind you that Sderot, where I live, has been bombed by Hamas for eight years and not a word from anyone. Yet your correspondents are vociferous about the poor civilians that we accidentally hurt trying to defend ourselves from these totally immoral fundamentalists.
Do they really believe they help the cause of peace by their one-sided support for a terrorist organisation? What they are really doing is the opposite. They are encouraging them to believe that they, the fundamentalists, can win with the world's support and that any lies they tell are acceptable as long as they are against Israel.
When Hamas and other such bodies will find that they are not supported by decent people it will help us and the Palestinians find a way to reach a real peace. Both of us want and need it. - Yours, etc,
BARRIE ROCKMAN,
Sderot,
Israel.
Madam, - It is about time that civilised people realised that the only "axis of evil" in world terms today involves the current administrations governing the US, Britain and Israel.
What other democratic state is more willing to attack and destroy innocent lives than these three war-criminal nations? That they do what they do with impunity is a sad reflection on the so-called democratic authority of bodies such as the United Nations and the European Union. - Yours, etc,
PAT CARTON,
Castlecoote,
Co Roscommon.
A Chara, - So Israel butchers 40 people sheltering in a United Nations school in Gaza and people express shock and surprise? This is perfectly on form for a nation that is surely one of the most dangerous and bloody-minded on the planet, given its massive military (including nuclear) hardware, all generously donated by the US.
More significant, and just as appalling, is the free rein the Americans give Israel to bomb, destroy, murder and maim as it sees fit, while guaranteeing that every single motion of censure and condemnation of Israel that comes before the United Nations will be vetoed, as has happened countless times in the past.
The Israeli ambassador can write all the letters he wants about how Hamas provoked the current violence, and no doubt he has some valid points to make, but nobody who knows anything about this crisis believes a word he says. The appalling fact remains that the sole reason this massacre is being enacted at this time is for political expediency - to take advantage of the hiatus in America before a more pro-Palestinian president takes office, and to boost the popularity of the newly-elected leader of Kadima, Tzipi Livni, and the Labour Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, who were trailing in the polls behind Likud with an election due on February 10th.
Any Israeli spokesman who suggests otherwise is a liar. - Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL,
Castle Gate,
Dublin 2.
Madam, - The letter from David Norris and the article by Fintan O'Toole (January 6th) surely say all that needs to be said about the appalling events in Gaza.
The letter in the same edition from the Israeli ambassador is the perfect example of "the twisted language that defends the indefensible", in Mr O'Toole's words. We can expect more of this language in the days ahead from the many people who seem unable or unwilling to see this abominable slaughter for what it is.
We can only hope and pray that there is some spark of humanity and decency left in the Israeli government that will motivate it to call a halt. - Yours, etc,
PAUL MacCARTHY,
Ballyroan Heights,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Madam, - There is more than a touch of the Skibbereen Eagle in Fintan O'Toole's denunciation of the Israeli action in Gaza (Opinion, January 6th). He appears to believe that unless Barack Obama has the "courage to speak" - ie, join the chorus of anti-Israeli voices so well represented in the pages of The Irish Times - he risks disappointing his many Irish fans. Given that the US has defined the Middle East as an area in which it has major strategic interests it is unlikely that this invitation to join the throng of moralising grandstanders will be taken up. - Yours, etc,
Prof HENRY PATTERSON,
School of Policy Studies,
University of Ulster,
Jordanstown,
Co Antrim.
Madam, - How can Senator David Norris dismiss Iran's President Ahmadinejad so lightly and assign all blame to Israel? He of all people in this country - the man who rightly challenged in court the Irish retention of savage 19th-century UK legislation criminalising male homosexuality as violating human rights and who, more than any other public individual, vindicated the dignity and place of citizens without distinction of sexual orientation - not even mention the long list of Iranians, both men and women, publicly hanged under this vile regime to enforce its repressive sexual code? Senator Norris is also the Peace Train campaigner who earned great respect, and made an effective and important public impact, in his prominent confrontations with sectarian terror.
If the Indian president had even once, much less repeatedly and publicly, vowed to "wipe Pakistan off the map", as Ahmadinejad vows to do with Israel, would any of us remain so silent or so composed? Not least the whole Muslim Ummah and the 57 member-states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
Iran already owns, and has successfully tested, missiles with enough range to achieve that genocidal outcome, and is developing a twin-track capability, involving both plutonium as well as the more frequently mentioned uranium-enrichment routes, of nuclear warheads for those missiles.
Remember also the readiness to both slay and be slain from the decade-long Iraq-Iran War, including the use of massed ranks of young boys as suicidal human mine-clearance tools. This is no mere "nasty and inflated rhetoric".
The capability, intentions and track-record of the revolutionary Iranian Islamicist regime combine to provide objective reasons for grave and indeed increasing concern, and for concerted, urgent and effective action by the international community, to completely eliminate those genocidal threats. - Yours, etc,
TOM CAREW,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
Madam, - It seems that all spokespersons for Israel speak from the same hymn sheet, every line repeated ad infinitum across the media in the hope it will be believed. How can so many be in denial of their actions when it is plain for the whole world to see that the victims in this case are the many thousands of innocent Palestinians.
All seven points made by the ambassador of Israel in his letter of January 6th are familiar. But is it not Israeli bombs and bullets that are responsible for the carnage in Gaza? Schools and mosques appear to be legitimate targets. Women and children are slaughtered daily, yet there is no let-up in the onslaught. The excuses made by the ambassador for the civilian deaths carry little weight. It is be hoped that this insanity will end now. - Yours, etc,
TOM PARTRIDGE,
Cliff Road,
Tramore,
Co Waterford.
Madam, - It's good to see that Israel has finally accepted that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Or should that be a public relations crisis? - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL SCOTT,
Foster Place North,
Dublin 3.