Leo is right: Israel’s assault on Gaza looks like revenge
AN Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has got it right in his comment this week that the Israeli military response is ‘approaching revenge’ in Gaza.
The initial response of the EU, US and UK, though very understandable in the context of the appalling slaughter of Israelis by Hamas on October 7, risked ‘sanctioning’ an unacceptable and inhumane Israeli response. Unfortunately this is apparently what is progressively taking place over these past days and someone needed to flag it.
Hopefully, his remarks will now enable other democracies to ‘adjust’ what may have been an emotional initial response.
Michael Gannon, Kilkenny City.
... CONTEXT is important when proffering opinions on the crisis in the Middle East.
No one in anyway can justify attacks taken by Hamas or Israel’s breaches of international law vis-a-vis their revenge attack.
I have to remind myself that the people in Gaza have been under bombardment not just since October 7. These people have been bombed in 2014, 2017, 2021 and 2022. They have been living under a siege for the past 16 years. This siege means that the Israelis have control over the airspace, the waters, the land etc.
Israel controls what goes in and what comes out of Gaza. The
Strip is the size of greater Glasgow and one of the most densely populated places on the planet, with 2.3 million Palestinians living there. It’s shocking to learn, that if people want to leave Gaza, they have to ask permission from Israel and very often Israel says no.
According to the charity Save the Children, between January and June of this year, 400 Palestinian children applied for permits to leave Gaza so they could get urgent medical treatment and these poor souls’ applications were rejected.
Yes, context is everything.
John O’Brien,
Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
... CLEARLY Israel is engaging in a genocide of the Palestinian people and has given its soldiers the green light to kill anyone they encounter inside the Gaza Strip as part of their ground operations, thus eliminating Palestinians and imagining Israeli settlers living on land that used to be called Gaza.
Palestinians are being deliberately deprived of the basic necessities for life, including food, water, shelter and medical care. Air strikes are indiscriminately killing and maiming Palestinians.
For genocide to happen, two critical elements are needed: the infrastructural and material capabilities to commit the genocide and the ability to conceal the genocide by calling it something else.
We live in an imperial world order where the West reigns supreme. White supremacy is alive and well. We are seeing how the Euro-American empire posits itself, forcefully and violently and by any means necessary, as lords of the world. The world will never forget these brutalities and injustices, which should provide an impetus to create a better world.
Gerry Coughlan,
Kilnamanagh, Dublin
... MANY Palestinians in Gaza do not support Hamas, and what is the point of killing innocent men, women and children in their thousands?
Surely it is time for every nation to call a halt to these devastating hostilities rather than escalating them, as the US has done by President Biden’s visit to Israel.
The world must continue to push for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages held by Hamas, and show compassion towards the Palestinian people who have nothing to do with Hamas and are bearing the brunt of Israel’s retaliatory onslaught.
Noel Harrington, Kinsale, Co.
Cork Drugs doublethink
THE nonsense from the Citizens Assembly on drugs appears to have concluded with ‘There’s not much harm drugs can do really; let’s go down the road of liberalisation’.
On the other hand, the Government will ban e-cigarettes for young people.
Everything nowadays is a matter of virtue-signalling and the politics of the latest bandwagon.
Robert Sullivan, Bantry, Co. Cork.