Madam, - Seán Gannon of the Irish Friends of Israel seems to base his defence of that state on the fact "that the international community is routinely forced into climb-downs regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and issues of international law" (September 11th).
He fails to mention that these "climb-downs" are a result of shameless pressure - amounting to blackmail - from the US and EU, aimed at defending Israel's adopted role as an outpost of Western imperialism in the Middle East.
"Long-standing claims of Israeli non-compliance with Security Council resolutions. . .have been withdrawn", he tells us, without specifying that it is only these same political entities - defined by Mr Gannon, surely rather narrowly, as "the international community" - that have withdrawn them. The consensus under international law remains that Israel is a rogue state.
The fact that the "report by the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the territories, which charged Israel with racism and apartheid, has been quietly shelved" is an indictment of the UN and the degree to which it has been hijacked by Western interests, and not an acquittal of Israel.
However, Mr Gannon is undoubtedly correct in describing as "incongruous" the notion that the EU might consider the human rights clause in its trade agreement with Israel as binding, given the contempt for the human and political rights of Palestinians revealed by the EU's unconditional support for Israel's crimes. - Yours, etc,
RAYMOND DEANE, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.