Danny Wakil, Billinudgel
Gareth Smith, in his letter last week, claims that he is ‘protesting against the colonial settler state of Israel’s brutal persecution of Palestinians who are considered “untermensch”, sub-humans not worthy of comparison to Jews and certainly not entitled to the same civic and life benefits.’
This is an inflammatory and disgusting statement, and I am glad to say that not one person that I know in Israel is remotely of that opinion.
The bulk of Israelis want Palestinians to have a high standard of living and you can thank Hamas and the PA directly for that not coming to fruition. As you well know, billions of dollars given to the two were diverted into the personal accounts of their leaders with the intention of keeping the population impoverished.
It is a sad fact that one-sided opinions will never bring peace. Why not call your car the ‘Peacemobile’ and show where coexistence is working between Palestinians and Israelis?
I am in contact with so many Palestinians who love Israel and show that Hamas and the PA are oppressing their people and have no other vision or policy but the total destruction of Israel. The PA and Hamas need to be removed and replaced by a government that doesn’t take instruction from Iran and believes in finding a permanent solution to the conflict where the two peoples can live side-by-side in harmony. The issue is that Palestinians are regularly killed by their leaders for even having those opinions.
Today we have a ceasefire from this latest terrible war. There is no doubt that Hamas has been planning this attack for months and that Israel did not instigate this war. Over 3,700 deadly rockets were fired by Hamas at Israeli civilians, 30 per cent of which fell short and exploded in Gaza killing many of their own people.
Israel went to great lengths to minimise Palestinian civilian deaths, but had no choice but to respond to these rocket attacks and take out Hamas as best as possible. Sadly, Palestinian civilians were lost, and I do not know anyone who is happy about that.
It would have taken many months for Hamas to prepare and move these weapons to their firing positions, evidence that this was not a reaction to anything Israel did in the past weeks.
Nobody wins from this way of life. Most Israelis and Palestinians are beautiful people, and peace is the only solution. So many deaths, so many families in mourning, all for what?
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
