Israel

I have always supported the Israeli cause because, far more often than not, they have held the moral - and, even, on occasion, the spiritual high ground.

But we must never be blind to that nation's many weaknesses and I list four here:

1)Although I do not care at all for the pitch of the letter below - Deir Yassin undermined much of the Israeli case.

2) The Stern Gang were nothing other than terrorists.

3) The blowing up of The King David Hotel under The British Mandate was a disgrace and

4) Building on disputed territory was calculatedly designed to cock a snook at Palestinians - whether peaceful or aggressive.

Sue Cooke, Windmill Rise, York. SIXTY nine years ago on April 9, 1948, disaster struck a small village near Jerusalem. At 4.30am during the hours of darkness, 107 Zionist militiamen entered the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin. As the villagers, taken by surprise, tried to defend their village the attackers slaughtered 170 children, women and men. A further 80 people from Deir Yassin were taken prisoner, paraded through Jerusalem then murdered. The people of Deir Yassin lived in peace with their Jewish neighbours across the valley in Grivat Shaul, they supported each other to give warnings of attacks. I heard from a colleague, Mazin Qumsiyeh, in Bethlehem. At the time, in 1948, Mazin’s mother was training to be a teacher in Jerusalem. Her best friend was Hayah Balbisi, who that fateful April returned to her home in Deir Yassin to be with her family. Hayah was 16 years old when she was killed by Zionist militiamen. To this day Mazin’s mother, now 84, remembers the tragedy which took her friend’s life. The slaughter and destruction at Deir Yassin marked the beginning of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from the land of their birth, which continues today with the illegal military occupation of Palestine, and the 10 year blockade of Gaza, brutally enforced by the Israeli government. It is important to remember that the ongoing suffering in Palestine and Israel are the continuation of something our Government set in train a hundred years ago this year, with the 1917 Balfour Declaration. It is time our Government apologised and helped correct the historical injustices we are responsible for. As we grieve for the children killed in Syria, and children killed in Yemen with British weapons of destruction supplied to Saudi Arabia, I continue to be hopeful that readers will find out more about the reasons behind these linked tragedies, and write to their Members of Parliament.
Read more at: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/yp-letters-lessons-from-past-to-help-end-injustice-1-8493066

Nonetheless, the legally constituted state of Israel has been treacherously invaded on FOUR occasions by neighbours; it has been subjected to lengthy periods of rocket attacks; it has been treated as a cancer in its midst by Moslem states; it has been victim of at least a hundred times more terrorism than rogue elements in its own ranks have ever committed.

I have before recommended Con Coughlin's old book A Golden Basin Full Of Scorpions if you really want to understand what is going on. (I say that in the clear understanding that this text is a very secular piece of writing.)