Letters

Question of humanity

The Israel-Hamas conflict

Thu Nov 02 2023 - 04:45

A chara, – The more I read of the cruelty of Hamas and the Israeli government the more I believe in the words of Jonathan Swift: “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love.” – Is mise,

DERMOT O’ROURKE,

Lucan,

Dublin.

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Sir, – Revulsion at the Hamas atrocities on October 7th are matched now by the sheer horror of Israel’s mass murder of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza. By perpetrating apartheid policies, war crimes and genocide, Israel has sacrificed all entitlement to international support and sympathy, and dishonoured its own Holocaust dead. Shame on western leaders for condoning this savagery. – Yours, etc,

RORY O’MAHONY,

Kilkenny.

Sir, – Where has the moral compass of our humanity gone? We look on as the EU, the UN and the United States watch the destruction of our fellow human beings with vague whimpers about a ceasefire in Gaza.

There’s probably not a single person who has not been shocked by the savagery of Hamas but the revengeful response by Israel is quite appalling. What will this slaughter achieve in the long term? Nothing but the wasted blood of innocents on both sides. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD RODGERS,

Malahide,

Dublin.

Sir, – Dr Nancy Claxton reminds us that the refugee camps being attacked by air and land in Gaza and the West Bank are housing people, not from another country, but from the West Bank (Letters, October 31st). These families have, since 1948, been forcibly removed from their homes and land by illegal Israeli settlers, backed by the Israel Defence Forces, the same army that is now bombing them.

Nothing can excuse the barbarity of the Hamas attacks, but neither will history condone the injustices – and savagery – perpetrated by Israel over the past 70 odd years. – Yours, etc,

MIKE MURPHY,

Dublin 4.