Sir, – I have watched the reports from Gaza and on the demonstrations about the bombing. And now I need to speak out, as a supporter of human rights, as a Jew, a rabbi and a citizen of the world. I condemn the Israeli government for its treatment of Palestinians on the West Bank. I condemn the Israeli government for its incessant bombing, the death of children and the destruction of Gazan society. And I support those who are as heartbroken as I am over this carnage.
But I do have a question. Where were the demonstrators, the reports in The Irish Times, when thousands of Israelis and Jews were murdered through suicide bombings, missiles, guerrilla attacks in Israel, Western Europe and around the world? Where were the demonstrations, the calls for human rights, when every country in the Arab League expelled Arab Jews in 1948?
Where were the demonstrations when Black September blew up school buses in Kyrat Shemonah or the cafeteria at Hebrew University, or the cafes in Tel Aviv, or the 23 bus in Jerusalem? Nowhere.
To the clerics who have spoken from the pulpit about the war crimes committed against Gazans, my question is where was your church, your clergy during the terror attacks in Israel, during the murders in Munich, during the Shoah and, oh yes, during the Inquisition? Nowhere.
From the safety of Ireland it is easy to blame, to point fingers, to claim a righteous position when it isn’t your home, your children, your parents and relatives being bombed or dying in the IDF. It is easy to accuse without coming to terms with the situation in Israel/Palestine, a situation that is at once complex and deadly. And it is extremely naive to think that some of the rancour and anger directed at Jews (in France, Germany, the US and, yes, here in Dublin) is anything other than anti-Semitism.
The horror in Gaza is just that – horrific. It needs to stop. We need to make it clear that "never again" means never another Gaza, or Munich, or Rwanda, or Belfast, or Warsaw, or Darfur or Gorta Mór. It means that all human beings must be treated with dignity and respect. It is time to stand for all humanity ... even for those whose homes are the targets of Hamas's missiles. – Yours, etc,
PROF KRIS
MCDANIEL-MICCIO,
Orwell Rd,
Dublin 6
Sir, – Who could deny the righteous momentum that brought the Jewish people after the Holocaust and after almost two millennia of diaspora and persecution to seek a return to the old homeland of Palestine?
The dilemma was how to accomplish this justly and in a manner that did not deny the rights of the homeland’s perennial inhabitants, the Palestinians. In this Israel and the international community (who also bear massive responsibility) have sadly failed and in the process the Israeli state has, in its peripheralisation, dispossession and destruction of the Palestinians, perpetrated a fate similar to that which was unleashed upon Jews during the endless and centuries-old persecutions and pogroms of Europe, Russia and the Middle East.
People of goodwill across the world are watching the current situation unfold with great sadness given the appalling history of Jewish suffering, and therefore – and perhaps unrealistically (given the the developing aggression of Islam around them) – expected more evolved and humane solutions to be pursued by the Israelis in solving the problems of co-habitation in shared territories.
As for Eamonn Mc Cann’s naive belief (Opinion & Analysis, July 31st, in reference to Jon Snow’s conjecture about Hamas’a motives) that there would not be Hamas extremists willing to stand by and see the cause bolstered by the pile-up of Palestinian bodies, including those of children, I find his lack of cynicism difficult to understand given his age and our observation of similar strategies pursued in the past, eg the IRA’s ruthlessness in letting young men die on hunger strike, boosting the organisation’s position. Extreme situations breed extremism.The Palestinians have a just cause, corrupted by extremism. Likewise the Israelis. Will the human community never learn the lessons of history? Probably not. And in the meantime children are dying. – Yours, etc,
CYNTHIA CARROLL,
Portryan,
Co Tipperary
Sir, – I see another letter describing Israel as “the only true democracy in the Middle East”. Perhaps we should pray that this model of democracy spreads no further: the undertakers would never be able to keep up. Yours, etc,
CAPT JOHN DUNNE,
St Georges Street,
Douglas,
Isle of Man