Sir. Israeli aggression, under the guise of self defence and punitive action, knows no hounds and respects no boundaries. Not only does Israel violate international law and UN resolutions by occupying a so called "security zone in the south of Lebanon, incursions into Lebanon proper have, over the years, taken place regularly from this illegal base. In its latest campaign of terror, Israel has breached the US brokered understanding of 1993 not to target civilians, indeed, it could be claimed with some justification that, in order to root out popular backing for the Hizbullah, the Israeli "Defence" Forces are deliberately aiming their shells and bombs at civilian targets, at the ordinary houses of ordinary people. Sadly, a "body count would clear out this claim.
The Israeli Government has "ordered" half a million citizens of a sovereign foreign state to leave their homes, only to bomb then into submission at their gathering points. Far to the north of the self declared "combat zone", it has wantonly sought to destroy the infrastructure of a neighbouring nation which is just beginning to emerge from decades of war and civil strife, themselves the result of the volatile political situation in the Middle East exacerbated by Israeli expansionism. Israel is thus guilty of a subtle form of ethnic cleansing, and of state terrorism.
Yet the bizarre logic of the militaristic Israeli mindset demands that in order to gain support among the Israeli public for a reluctant and very conditional peace with one people, the Palestinians, Prime Minister Peres must appear to act tough by going to war against another. Based on a sense of military and moral superiority, the fate of Israel has always had a tendency, often, for domestic reasons, to over react in its response to the equally abominable attacks on its buses and buildings. Thus, the massacre of the innocent at Qana is but one in a long series of barbaric acts and must be unequivocally condemned.
it is shameful that the Israeli ambassador to Ireland sees fit (April 17th) to defend his country's undefendable acts of murder, mutilation and destruction even before this outrageous bloodbath by claiming that "operations are being conducted solely against Hizbullah terrorist targets".
Ask the dead women and children in the rubble of their houses. Yet we know from the ambassador's comments that these deaths are mere by products of war regrettable but unavoidable and no reason whatsoever to Cease Israel's unbridled aggression. - Yours, etc
Ballinclea Heights,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.