Andrew Macklin, Mullumbimby Creek
Gareth Smith (July 14), I can see you like the selective use of historical facts and statistics when arguing for ‘balance’ about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
I have just one statistic – zero. That’s how many bomb shelters there are in Gaza. This, despite the fact that Hamas clocks in as the third richest terrorist organisation in the world at $1billion (Forbes 2018). That’s zero shelters even though Hamas has a special ‘tunnels battalion’ responsible for digging and building tunnels to facilitate attacking Israel – some big enough to drive trucks through.
Israel, by comparison, has devoted billions of shekels to building enough bomb shelters to protect at least 75 per cent of its people. In the 2021 conflict, Hamas fired 4,000 rockets that would’ve caused mass casualties of Israelis – men, women and children – without the Iron Dome. They did so knowing Israel would respond, knowing there were no bomb shelters for Palestinians, and fighting from urban areas – essentially using Palestinians as human shields.
In biasing your argument against Israel you miss the geo-political forces at work. Hamas is a terrorist army paid for by Iran and Qatar whose stated aim is the annihilation of Israel and death to all Jews. Palestinian deaths are useful in the propaganda war of demonising Israel. A trap you’ve fallen into.
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. 
