Day 218, April 19th, 2011

The Editor


The Courier

Dear Sir,

Your correspondent Jan Benvie says ‘When Israel bombed Gaza in 2008, killing 1300 people and destroying 20,000 buildings there was no question of a no-fly zone’. The shrill voice of ignorance is louder than the whispers of fact. During the Gaza conflict, most of the bombing was done by Hamas, who fired rockets and mortars into the homes of Israeli civilians. For the most part, Israel sent in ground troops in order to avoid civilian casualties: this in a situation where Hamas was coldly using Palestinian civilians as human shields. The Israelis sent messages by e-mail and telephone to warn Gaza residents to get out of harm’s way: Hamas repeatedly forced them to stay. Colonel Richard Kemp, one of Britain’s foremost soldiers said afterwards that ‘I would say that from my knowledge of the Israel Defence Forces and from the extent to which I have been following the current operation, I don’t think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza’. As for the 1300 deaths, over half were Hamas fighters, men who should never have been fighting from within their own civilian population in the first place.

Ms. Benvie also states that ‘Palestinians are fighting a country occupying their land’. This distorts the situation. In 1947, the UN gave the Arabs the right to found a state on much the same terms as the Jews. In 1948, the Jews established the state of Israel. The Arabs wanted it all and sent five armies against Israel. Since then, the Palestinians have rejected every call for peace, have fought wars with their Arab allies, and have engaged in a steady policy of terrorism against Israeli civilians. Israel will occupy the West Bank until it becomes safe enough to do so. Sixty years on, the Palestinians still chant the same chants, mouth the same slogans, sing the same songs, and train with the same weapons. When will Ms Benvie put pressure on them to learn from their sufferings, make peace, and live at peace with a country that has never meant them any harm?

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Denis MacEoin

15 Erskine Court
Lindisfarne Close
Newcastle upon Tyne

NE2 2HT