Palestine is run by terrorists, not Israel

It is hard to believe there are so many people in our country who support a terrorist organisation. The majority of letters in these pages support Hamas and the people who voted this terror group to power.

Those who decided to sail into a dispute and thought the government of Israel would meekly stand by and allow them to land are stupid.

If these well meaning people are so concerned for the starving, there are places on this planet where people are actually hungry.

STAN HOGARTH

Young Street

Strathaven

I sense that the appeasers and conciliators in the West are working towards abandoning the democratic state of Israel in the mistaken view that this will somehow save them to continue with life as before, which simply isn't going to happen.

Somehow I don't believe that this time round the Israelis are going to roll over, and whether the timid and touchy feely are for it or not, we are heading for a major conflagration.

DAVID McPHILLIPS

Broomfield Crescent

Edinburgh

Please allow me to respond to the spirited and critical letter from Tom Minogue (Letters, 4 June) which referred to my earlier one focusing on Gaza and the conditions there.

I would point to a devaluation of the term "humanitarian crisis" and even the media is having problems using the phrase in the context of Gaza.

I would argue that, at worst, Gazans are facing hardship and in some cases deprivation, but they are not suffering a humanitarian crisis. The people of Darfur, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Biafra have each suffered that level of calamity and disaster.

While I don't wish to indulge Mr Minogue in his fantasy, he forgot to mention tours of ruined glass-houses in Gaza which could have served as the foundation of a market-gardening industry but which the local people destroyed after the departure of the Israelis.

Why not witness a beating of a gay man or two, or join a family for coffee after they have finished the honour killing of a much-loved relation?

Maybe follow the Hamas morality cops as they enforce the laws they want adhered to?

Or join a missile-brigade for the afternoon and help launch a rocket into Israel? Just think – you might actually hit a school or kindergarten.

It is my understanding that many on the liberal-left who support the Palestinian narrative have lost their moral compass. Not that I am saying that Mr Minogue has lost his moral compass, of course.

DR GRAEME D EDDIE

Bothwell Gardens

Dunbar