THE indiscriminate murder of people in Israel by Hamas is an unforgivable crime which has no political justification. Kidnapping and murdering civilians can never be justified in political terms. It is a major crime, not only against the people attacked, but against all humanity, and no civilised democratic society can justify or tolerate such conduct. International law demands that the perpetrators of such crimes must be brought to justice.
Perhaps the only crime worse than terrorist gangs behaving in this way is when state governments act in this way themselves. We are now witnessing the “democratic” government of Israel using the Hamas terrorist crimes as a justification to do the same thing, on a much larger scale, to the Palestinian people.
READ MORE: All nations should be pushing for peace rather than taking sides
Such conduct can never be accepted or justified. The Israeli Government have taken 2.5 million people in Gaza as hostages. They are stopping water, food and power supplies getting to them and are bombing their homes and killing indiscriminately the population. Is that not the same crime as Hamas have committed?
No decent country can accept, justify or condone such conduct. Whether it is committed by Hamas terrorists or Israeli soldiers, it is still a crime against humanity.
Those Hamas terrorists did not commit their evil crime just against Israeli people, they committed their crimes against all of us, against humanity and we should seek them out and punish them as an international community. However, if the Israeli government commit the same crime against the Palestinian people they also should be punished by international law. They also have no justification for such crimes.
It is sheer hypocrisy to condemn one of these crimes while condoning or justifying the other. Those who are trying to justify the conduct of the Israeli government towards the people in Gaza today are not in fact showing respect to the victims of the Hamas crimes; they are showing disrespect to them by repeating such crimes against other innocent people.
Andy Anderson
Ardrossan
THE town of Ayr was once weel kent as the “toon of honest men and bonnie lassies”. Now it is terminal decline, no longer having a basic rail terminal. The train station is closed due to a decayed building next door. Any modern country would have at least a temporary service up and running. Before “the experts” call me a fool, platform four could be operating with ease.
The state of Ayr, once a bustling tourist area, is an example of what is happening throughout the country – neglect and decay through the weakness of our citizens, including myself. We have become so used to being told what we can’t do. We accept what we don’t vote for.
READ MORE: SNP conference: Humza Yousaf announces freeze on council tax
I walked into Paisley Gilmour Street station a couple of weeks ago, having flown into their local airport from Norway. That was the first I heard about the closure of Ayr’s railway service.
What a contrast, having a few days earlier travelled on trains that operate all year above the Arctic Circle, as they have been doing for more than a hundred years. Coincidentally in a country that voted in 1905 for independence from Sweden. Jings, 99.95% in favour. How are relations now with Sweden? How poor is Norway? How do other countries perceive Norway? Where is the poverty and injustice in Norway?
Scotland is a forsaken wilderness of neglect and poverty, and there is very little chance we will ever regain international standing unless we can find a leader with the charisma and strength of belief to reinvigorate lost souls like me.
Bryan Clark
Maybole
I HAVE a great deal of respect for the Kirk, a form of church governance wholly democratic, at least in comparison to other hierarchical systems – so the following is by no means a denunciation of that faith.
As far as the historical selling of our nation to our powerful neighbour goes, that is another story.
In his excellent article in the Sunday National, Hamish MacPherson lays out the facts – that the Kirk was instrumental in bargaining away our freedom for a guarantee that their form of worship would be enshrined in law.
READ MORE: How the Kirk was won round to Union
Their fears that a union with England would result in episcopacy being imposed here petered out once the Stuarts were gone, and I’m not convinced that after the so-called “glorious revolution” the Kirk was in any real doubt about abandoning Scotland’s cause as a free nation. Their hatred and fear of the Catholic Stuarts, France and Spain seems to have overcome any residual patriotism they may have held.
From that day to this, in general cultural terms at least, the Kirk has been a loyal supporter of the “British” system, so hats off to Hamish for laying bare a truth that has remained practically unspoken for years. With a history stretching back to Knox – a committed Anglophile – our established church probably won’t be in a hurry to espouse the nationalist cause and undo their legacy of Union support any time soon.
Jim Butchart
via email
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