All nations should be pushing for peace rather than taking sides

No Western or Middle Eastern government should be backing these kinds of leaders. They are a disgrace to the concepts of fair, just, and reasonable governance. How can this possibly end well for ordinary people living in Israel or Palestine with these brutes leading both sides on a war path that no-one can truly win?

I have known both Jews and Palestinians and have visited the regions of Palestine and Israel. Like anywhere else, most people want peace, basic human rights, and a decent standard of living in which to raise their children.

Historically, both Jews and the Palestinians have suffered at the hands of powerful nations and each other. There’s a tragic irony to some of the warped policies of creating ghettos, inhumane living conditions, and open-air prisons that can only lead to warped mindsets. Weren’t Jewish people forced into ghettos? Why inflict the same on the Palestinians?

Regarding Hamas, there is nothing glorious about slaughtering innocent Jewish families or using its own populations as human shields.

Rather than taking sides, all nations and their peoples should now pressurise the Israelis, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority to come to the negotiating table because there has to be compromise. They will have to learn to respect each other’s right to live sooner or later.

If any of these leaders have the interests of their people at heart then they will put them first and stop this barbaric bloodshed. But do these leaders on either side really care about their populations? In the meantime, people are dying for nothing and the rest of the world is made to watch the macabre mayhem. And ordinary Scots have no say as the London government jumps on the US war wagon as per usual.

There appears to be the setting up of a rat trap in that region and I’m not happy about anyone (man, woman, or child of any denomination) being led by the evil Pied Pipers. It’s revolting all round.

Rebecca McCallum
North Ayrshire

DURING a visit to Scotland Keir Starmer said: “Whatever I say will be what Anas says.” Does Anas Sarwar agree with Starmer and several other senior Labour Party shadow ministers that it is right for the Israeli government to cut off water and electricity, and blockade other supplies to the whole population of Palestine? It is a war crime, breaking international law.

Then came the demand that all Palestinians in north Gaza move to the south within 24 hours. That is a humanitarian disaster in the making and a crime against humanity.

Will anyone ask Sarwar or Labour in Scotland for their opinions?

Brian Powell
St Andrews

DR LISA Cameron states that she will never regret standing up for a victim of abuse. Nobody doubts her compassion or sincerity and according to a number of her constituents, who were all surprised by her defection to the Tories, she is a dedicated, hard-working MP.

But how on earth can anyone who is an acknowledged champion for the disabled, switch from working tirelessly to help the SNP offset the worst effects of UK Government-imposed austerity – particularly on many thousands of the most deprived people in Scotland – to working for the Tory Party that imposed and seeks ways of imposing even more of these measures on these same people?

Now it appears Cameron’s defection was not a spontaneous action on a matter of conscience as Alister Jack claims it was masterminded in total secrecy by Rishi Sunak.

With the international events lurching from one global crisis to the next, why is the Prime Minster going to such lengths over one MP?

John Jamieson
South Queensferry

I COULDN’T agree more with Ian Roberts’s comments (Letters, Oct 14). Westminster will never ever give Scotland another independence referendum, it’s not in its interests to do so and it won’t.

Whether it is bums on seats or votes at the ballot box it won’t cut with Westminster. More than two years ago my comments were published in this paper stating the same as Ian. His assertion that “on a democratic victory in a plebiscitary General Election, the UK would have no legal or constitutional power to prohibit Scotland from resuming its sovereign status” is, in reality, the ONLY way forward. Nothing else will stand a chance.

Ken McCartney
Hawick

THE SNP have had a difficult year but as the faithful gather for the party conference, we must come together for the sake of the future of the country.

We need the progressive, socially just Scotland the SNP are endeavouring to deliver and we must not let Scotland down.

We already have progressive taxation, are addressing child poverty with the Scottish Child Payment and are avoiding a tax on the sick by abolishing prescription charges and much more. But still more needs to be done and the SNP have proven they are the only government which can deliver. We must come together for the country.

Catriona C Clark
Banknock, Falkirk

ANENT M Ross’s experience when trying to use their “bus pass” on an Edinburgh tram. It’s an error to state that only Lothians-issued passes are acceptable.

In fact, it is only City of Edinburgh-issued passes which are acceptable. Residents of the Lothians do not get free travel on the trams any more than the rest of the country.

I also feel aggrieved that – seeing as we all, as taxpayers, paid way over the odds for the Edinburgh Unionists’ vanity project –we are denied the free usage.

Gus McFadzen
Roslin, Midlothian