THE Ukraine war has faded from the headlines, to be supplanted by Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza. The US, EU and UK’s unconditional support for an Israeli regime that has murdered 18,000 Palestinians, displaced one million and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes is morally and legally beyond the pale. Anyone dissenting from the Israel Defence Forces's brutal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is branded anti-Semitic, which is clearly absurd since many Jews are appalled at what Israel is committing in their name.
The US, in particular, is an accomplice to the massacre. It is sending munitions and bombs for Israel to drop on tens of thousands of women and children. Israel’s President Herzog has said there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, a breathtaking statement. Israel is following the Dahiya doctrine, treating all civilians as military targets. This means women and children are fair game.
READ MORE: Foreign Secretary 'unaccountable' to MPs as Israel-Hamas war escalates
The rest of the world is watching this ethnic cleansing in real time. The New York Times admits that Israel killed more women and children in the first eight days of the war than have been killed in Ukraine in 18 months. Which nation is the real monster?
The West has abandoned any attempts at diplomacy in Gaza just as it has in Ukraine, claiming there is no alternative to dropping bombs. This is not only patently false but geopolitical suicide, especially for Israel. The Arab world has said time and again that it is interested in Israeli security, which can only be achieved via a political settlement. There have been five decades of UN Security Council resolutions saying the solution is a state of Palestine and a state of Israel, all ignored by the US.
There is a peaceful way out of this nightmare but it can only happen if the West stops bombing and starts talking.
Leah Gunn Barrett
Edinburgh
EVERY day, the horrendous scenes from Gaza bring me near to tears, as the Israelis drive the Palestinians into an ever-decreasing space, where each bomb can kill and maim ever-increasing numbers of desperate and already traumatised innocent men, women and children with nowhere to go. The number of wounded, orphaned and totally disorientated children, unable even to take in what is happening to them, is heartbreaking.
How can anyone with even the tiniest grain of humanity or compassion watch this and continue to supply weapons to the Israel Defence Forces and refuse to demand a ceasefire? Yet that is what our Westminster government and the US are doing.
READ MORE: The UK Government must stop facilitating atrocities in Gaza
Just when it seems that there is no greater depth of depravity and cruelty to which anyone can sink, we see every male of military age kneeling, stripped to underpants with hands tied behind their backs, then being thrown into the back of a lorry like so many bundles of rubbish and taken off for interrogation, to establish if they are members of Hamas.
Sadly, I am sure that even if none are actually Hamas supporters, some will be labelled as such to justify this war crime and will be horribly executed. Is the intention that any survivors become Palestinian hostages to be used to bargain for the release of the remaining Israeli ones?
An Israeli leader, recently interviewed and asked about their actions as an occupying force, stated that they were not occupiers, as they were not fighting in another country. So obviously he, like Netanyahu, believes that Gaza and the West Bank are Israeli territory. Does this not prove that what is happening is incontrovertibly ethnic cleansing and Israel intends either to drive the Palestinians out or wipe them out?
Yet, to their everlasting shame, the UK Government refused to vote with the UN for a permanent ceasefire to stop this indiscriminate carnage, which, to my mind, makes them complicit in the war crimes. Are they totally devoid of humanity, or just self-serving cowards, afraid of damaging their financial links with Israel and the UK arms producers who profit from selling arms to Israel?
L McGregor
Falkirk
IT is time all the aggressive actions of the Israeli Defence Force were made known to the rest of the world, and time we had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Israel to force Israelis to face up to the fact of the oppression of Palestinians.
No longer must we listen to “Israel must have the right to defend itself and its people”. The original residents of Palestine also had the right to defend themselves, but they did not have the military forces or the arms to stop the takeover of their country by Jews who were driven out of Europe.
The horrific story of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is a crime against humanity that Israel has wanted to deny and cause the world to forget. If the Israelis want to be free of the threat from Palestinian terrorism, they must create a JUST PEACE, if there is no justice, there can be NO peace.
I am not anti-Semitic. I am pro-justice.
Margaret Forbes
via email
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