Danny Wakil, Billinudgel
Ms R Goodchild, I completely agree with your post in last week’s paper in reference to the provocative words thrown in to make Israel look like an evil state. They are almost never fact based and do not contribute towards peace in any way but rather push both sides further apart.
It is curious how Gareth Smith (Letters July 16) laments the medical situation in Gaza, but forgets to mention that during the 2014 Gaza war the Shifa Hospital in Gaza was used as the Hamas command centre, as a rocket launch pad, snipers’ position and weapons storage depot. That same hospital now serves as a cover for Hamas’s underground tunnel system and base for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians – so that when Israel is obliged to respond to Hamas rocket attacks, it’s Hamas who intentionally puts Palestinian civilians in harm’s way.
How tragic that Palestinian civilians are at the mercy of these ruthless terrorist organisations. Let’s not reprimand Israel for taking steps to protect its civilian population against the same evil that prevents the Palestinians from having a better life. These regular anti-Israel posts that we see almost weekly in The Echo don’t contribute towards peace in any way. I am pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian and pro-peace.
Danny Wakil refers to letters in the Echo with “provocative words thrown in to make Israel look like an evil state.” He says “They are almost never fact based and do not contribute towards peace in any way but rather push both sides further apart.”
If Danny is referring to any of my letters on this subject, I can assure him that my comments are absolutely fact based. My words are not intended to incite hatred or create division, certainly there is enough of that already. Rather I seek to inform readers of the facts that underly the conflict in the hope that a better understanding will eventually lead to some sort of resolution of the conflict.
I have studied the issue for a number of years now and I was surprised to learn how different the historical facts are to what I previously believed. I have slowly and reluctantly come to the opinions I now share with readers of the Echo.
Sadly, when it comes to the truth about Israel, many of Israel’s supporters seem to have the attitude that if they don’t know about it already, it can’t be true, but if it is true, they don’t want to know about it.