Scotsman Letters: Israel and Hamas must stop the killing and start talking

Let me preface this by stating that I have long advocated a Palestine state as the only way to create a lasting peace between Muslims and Jews

A lasting peace plan between Israel and Hamas representatives could end the ongoing deaths and violence

Hamas’ medieval, savage and unprovoked attack on the Israeli people; killing hundreds and taking families, women and children hostage, have no justification whatsoever. With zero thought for their own people, Hamas has placed the lives of ordinary Gazans in extreme jeopardy – whilst their leader issues instructions from the safety of Qatar.

Make no mistake: Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation which has given the Israelis no option but to go into the warrens of Gaza to rescue the hostages.

I have huge sympathy with Humza Yousaf the man, not the politician, as he tries to establish what has happened to his mother-in-law.

Since the Jewish state was formed in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Jews have emigrated from the lands of their birth. They have tried to make Israel a militarily impenetrable fortress.

Hamas are solely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Gazans. And Israelis. It represents nobody but itself.

When a Palestine state is formed – as it will eventually – neighbouring Arab nations must underwrite a binding agreement.

As the Good Friday Agreement proved, UK and Irish politicians recognised that the sectarian killings had to stop and forged a lasting agreement.

Meetings between the Israeli government and Hamas representatives to set up a lasting peace plan may be unpalatable for both parties. But this isn’t about politics. It’s about people’s lives.

As Winston Churchill famously said: “Jaw, jaw is better than war, war.”

Doug Morrison, Cranbrook, Kent

Covid questions

As a former public inquiry chair, I expressed an expectation last year that the Covid ones would be revelatory.

The UK one has not been a disappointment, particularly regarding Boris Johnson. The Scottish one hasn't got anywhere near as far and is lagging behind, even though Nicola Sturgeon said that it would be the first to be operational.

Nevertheless, because of the complexity of the issues I recommend that Mary Thomas (Letters, October 13) holds fire with any judgment about the impact of Covid in the UK nations until the public inquiries have reported.

I suspect that virological matters like treatment with life-saving dexamethasone, and vaccines, have delivered much greater benefits than the words of politicians, although the deeds of some have set a bad example.

Public health in Scotland has always been fully devolved. It is easy to imagine the political row if Edinburgh had been told what to do about Covid!

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

Costly renewables

At last Joyce McMillan accepts that 'independence is irrelevant until we fix the climate' (Perspective, October 13). However, it appears that SNP supporters have yet to recognise that 'Scotland has no massive energy wealth' since electricity is three times more expensive than gas, hence not only is the era of cheap energy over but renewable generators come with enormous capital costs.

This leaves all political parties with two major financial problems. The first revolves around the warning from Vattenfall that green projects have doubled in price, meaning a green revolution now comes with £600 billion of debt, replacing gas boilers in a flat is now £80,000 and to upgrade rural properties comes at a cost of £66,000.

The second problem is that installing 60GW of wind output to meet a maximum demand of 20GW comes with a debt of around £300 billion.

How, then, can any political party eliminate the cost-of-living crisis with average energy bills of around £3,000 a year, increased tax to clear the £900 billion Just Transition debt and eliminate the £1 billion black hole in the current SNP budget when debt repayments means COP26 costs sink Indyref2 in a sea of red ink for the next 70 years?

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas

Election ploys

It’s not just traffic roundabouts East Kilbride is famous for. Brian Wilson (The Scotsman, October 14) conveniently forgets to mention that Lisa Cameron’s immediate predecessor, Labour’s Michael McCann, appeared on a 2019 general election leaflet in the working class constituency of Epsom backing the Tory candidate, Chris Grayling.

Space doesn’t permit a complete list of Tory policies adopted by Sir Keir Starmer in his unprincipled pursuit of power – not least on the privatisation of the NHS, Brexit, freedom of movement, immigration and on human rights in Gaza.

As your deputy political editor, Conor Matchett, pointed out last week, the only hope Anas Sarwar has to become first minister is to run a minority but be voted in by Tory and Lib-Dem votes then claim that no deals were done.

As Conor said: “The whole ploy was tested after the 2022 local elections, and has been telegraphed as a route to power in 2026 ever since.”

Fraser Grant, Edinburgh

Dangerous cyclists

It is to be hoped that after his attack on Clark Cross on his views on irresponsible cyclists that Benedict Bate has digested the excellent letter from Marjory Chalmers, who asks why the police do nothing about cyclists riding on the pavements and often at speed (Letters, October 13).

Another danger is e-scooter riders illegally on the roads and pavements, but again the police do nothing.

Today (Letters, October 14), E. Findlay responds to an example of a cyclist causing an elderly pedestrian to lose his balance and badly smashing his face.

The female cyclist was on the way to the gym and cycled off.

Michael Baird, Bonar Bridge

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