3 November 2023

Letter to the Editors

From Tony Peowrie with reference to Issue 361

Dear Sirs

Here are a few points on the Israel-Hamas conflict which do not get enough emphasis:

The Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas as their government 15+ years ago, knowing them to be terrorists whose main policy was the destruction of Israel and the death of all Jews. The people of Gaza have made no attempt to remove this government in the intervening years. Therefore, the only “innocent” inhabitants of Gaza are the children and foreign nationals.

Israel can never have a normal, peaceful relationship with a government who vows to destroy Israel and kill all Jews. This has now been underlined by the barbaric attack of 7th October, which proves Hamas means what it says.

Every day, Hamas still fire rockets into Israel, aimed at civilian targets. Curiously, the BBC rarely reports this, no daily count of rockets or anything like their normal love of statistics. I wonder why?

It has always been military practice to blockade your enemy in time of war. Similarly, bombing and shelling your enemy have always caused civilian casualties in war. Various countries have done both these things many times, including the UK, USA, Russia etc. It is therefore not surprising, nor evil, that Israel conducts this war in a similar manner.

Because of the Hamas policy described above and illustrated by their actions, the only way Israel can ever be safe from attack from Gaza is to destroy Hamas and never allow a similar government to be in power there in the future.

Regards

Tony Peowrie