Letters

Israel and Gaza

Any analysis of the war should cast a critical eye on both sides in the conflict

Letters to the Editor. Illustration: Paul Scott
The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.
Sat May 11 2024 - 00:10

Sir, – The war and deaths in Gaza are a tragedy. However, Justine McCarthy’s analysis offers the usual get-out-jail free card for Hamas (“US, UK and Germany have sown the shame of their nations in Gaza’s blood-drenched soil”, Opinion & Analysis, May 10th).

The reality is that Hamas had two clear chances of stopping the war: first by not raping women and killing 1,200 people on the morning of October 7th and again on October 8th by returning the hostages and handing over the men responsible for the attack. Any analysis of the war should take a critical eye on both sides in the conflict: Israel and Hamas. History shows again and again that history is not black and white (our own history of long conflict on this island is a good example of this). A peculiar aspect of the current conflict is that the activists are willing to forgive Hamas of almost every crime. This is not ideological naivety but a key component of the movement. Simultaneously, only the collective West is to be blamed. For example, in McCarthy’s analysis, she rightly laments the lack of space into which the citizens of Palestine could flee and blames the US. However, a more honest approach would be to question why Egypt had closed its border. In truth, a future free and independent Palestine is actually being hindered by the blinkered stance of those who claim to support it. As in every conflict, a more honest and critical approach by everyone of everyone is required. – Yours, etc,

GERRY MULLIGAN,

Bray,

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Co Wicklow.

Sir, – The large banner carried at the protest in Malmo accusing Israel of “genocide” is just the latest example of a trope that has no basis in fact (“Greta Thunberg joins protest at Eurovision”, World, May 10th).

The January ruling of the International Court of Justice on the case brought against Israel was delivered by the presiding judge, Joan Donoghue. Two weeks ago on the BBC Hardtalk programme Judge Donoghue told interviewer Stephen Sackur that the ruling “didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible . . . It did emphasise in the order that there was a risk of irreparable harm to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide”.

She said that “the shorthand that often appears, which is that there is a plausible case of genocide, isn’t what the court decided”.

Tragically an incorrect reading of the court’s finding has helped weaponise anti-Semitism in the West. The only beneficiaries of this is Hamas, an Iranian-backed Islamist army dedicated to wiping Jewish Israel off the map and killing all its Jews. – Yours, etc,

KARL MARTIN,

Dublin 13.