Madam, - The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in the face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last 70 years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted. - Yours, etc,
JOHN BERGER, NOAM CHOMSKY, HAROLD PINTER, JOSÉ SARAMAGO, Mieussy, France.
Madam, - It would seem that the majority of public opinion firmly condemns the actions of Israel in its response to the kidnapping of its soldiers by Hezbollah and Hamas. This is not surprising when the bulk of media coverage in this country and in the UK are daily reports on the death toll and devastation perpetrated by the Israeli military on the Lebanese population.
But while the media continue with what appears to be a bias view of the conflict it seems that no-one is keen or willing to condemn the actions of Hezbollah or Hamas. Incidentally, it is the Hezbollah who are guilty of crossing over into Israeli territory killing eight of its soldiers and taking two hostage. The fact that the Hezbollah are also guilty of a bombing campaign across northern Israel by firing rockets indiscriminately without predetermined targets also seems to attract little condemnation.
I agree that Israeli diplomacy often fails to meet the expectations of the West. The Israeli state would probably have gained some support had it used international pressure on the Lebanese government, the Hezbollah and Hamas for the release of the three soldiers. But diplomacy has historically failed in the Middle East. Why? Not because of the common misconception that Israel are aggressive obstructionists, but because the state of Israelis is constantly threatened by the core policies of Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran - that being the annihilation of the Jewish state and its people. With this in mind I would have hoped that the media coverage of the conflict would have reflected the complexities of Israeli-Arab political relations. So much for impartiality. - Yours, etc,
CHRIS HARBIDGE, Terenure, Dublin.
Madam, - If, as some of your correspondents suggest, Israel's attacks in Lebanon are not targeted at innocent civilians, one dreads to think of the slaughter if the official line was an "all-out offensive". The Lebanese are damned if they stay, or damned if they take the advice of Israeli leaflet drops and try to flee by road. If what is happening is not terror or ethnic cleansing, what is it? Perhaps the CIA code of "exterminate with extreme prejudice" might be apt. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CULLEN, Sandycove, Co Dublin.
Madam, - I fly home to Dublin tomorrow having just spent three weeks backpacking through Iran. During that time I have been captivated by the rich cultural heritage of the Persian people and have been humbled by their peerless hospitality. Given the current expression of conflict in that region, I have also however been quite ashamed to be identified as a "westerner".
It is hard to justify why the forces of supposed liberalism in Europe kowtow to the narrow vested interests of the US government. Similarly, it is difficult to explain the hypocrisy and the double-speak from groupings like the G8, the EU and the UN, who claim to promote democracy and humanitarianism while at the same time colluding to perpetuate the marginalisation and demonisation of Islamic peoples.
Moreover, it is simply impossible to defend the current atrocities being committed with apparent impunity by Israel. Having previously travelled in the Lebanon and seen the pride with which those generous and open-hearted people were trying to rebuild their country after a proxy war by external powers reduced it to rubble, it should be a source of profound humiliation for any western liberal that we are allowing it to be destroyed all over again.
It is no accident that political instability seems so inherent to the Middle East since the history of the West's involvement there has been one of ulterior motivations, the redrawing of borders, the arming and attacking of those puppet regimes which we create or oppose by turn.
It is no accident that desperate acts will be committed where a sense of desperation is created by having some of the world's poorest people living in a region with some of the world's richest resources.
The problems may be complex but they are not intractable so long as we recognise the collective aspiration of the people of the region to control their own destinies free from persecution by Western powers and their surrogates. - Yours, etc.,
SEAN D LYNCH, C/O Tehran, Iran.
Madam, - Why is it that the death of Lebanese civilians, who refuse to condemn Hezbollah when it launches unprovoked attacks on Israeli civilians and who allow those terrorists to live among them, results in the UN High Commissioner for Refugees mentioning possible war crimes. Yet thousands of innocent civilians in Darfur die and still the UN does absolutely nothing.
Why hasn't the UN intervened in that conflict with or without the agreement of the Sudanese government? How many innocent Sudanese civilians need to die for the UN to rouse itself. - Yours, etc.,
DESMOND FitzGERALD, Canary Wharf, London.
Madam, - Your lead headline on Tuesday's paper (July 18th) is at best ambiguous and at worst misleading: "Air strikes kill 42 as rockets rain down on Israel" gives the impression that the fatalities occurred in Israel. On further reading it turns out that the rain amounted to 50, hitting three buildings and injuring 11. I couldn't find the amount of missiles or explosives landed in Lebanon causing the 42 deaths and numerous injuries, but needless to say their surgical strikes were a little more deadly.
In fairness to your paper it attempts even-handedness but your headline, on this occasion, gives an insight into the role the media in general plays in the Middle East conflict ie portraying Israel as the victim. It can be argued that the media has ignored the plight of the continually persecuted Palestinian people, now in their effectively walled-in concentration camps, in favour of an occupying apartheid state. The oppressed has become the oppressor and the world turns away.
As Lebanon gets a dose of what the Palestinians (and Iraq) have got, the systematic destruction of their countries, the only people in danger of being pushed into the sea are those same populations by the local superpower. As is their wont, and as history shows, a minor incident is used by an ambitious state to wreak havoc on its neighbours. It ignores the many in its jails incarcerated without trial and selectively quotes UN resolutions, which suit its aggression. Boycotts have been organised for lesser crimes.
While Israelis have their shelters to protect them from the rain, there is little shelter from the storm in Lebanon and Gaza. - Yours, etc.,
PADDY MATHEWS, Drogheda, Co Louth.
Madam, - A definition for terrorism is given as "the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature". Over 300 civilians have been blown to bits in Lebanon with infrastructure such as hospitals and power stations laid waste in what can only be described as a calculated use of violence.
While there can be no argument that Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation and is a hindrance to a fully democratic Lebanon, it now seems that with the approval of the US administration terrorism itself has become a weapon in the war on terror. This of course will not be admitted in the world of diplomatic double speak that we inhabit. - Yours, etc.,
BARRY WALSH, Blackrock, Cork.