Israeli tanks have rolled into Gaza even as protesters around the world were gathering up their banners, but this should not discourage us from protesting. Rather, we need to protest even more strongly.

We need our government to use all possible diplomatic means to bring a halt to Israel's military assault on Gaza and to the blockade and siege that preceded it.

People across Britain have demonstrated their horror at what is happening and have shown that firm action in condemnation of Israeli aggression would have public support.

Such action should include ensuring an immediate end to the favourable status awarded to Israel in the European Union, and firm diplomatic pressure on the United States, which effectively underwrites the Israeli state and has failed to criticise what it is doing.

Criticism of Israel is often held back by a fear of appearing anti-Semitic, and apologists for Israel's wars of aggression frequently draw on the idea of a debt owed to Jews on account of the Holocaust. However, Jewish history does not justify attacking others or depriving them of their rights.

The Israeli Defence Minister has presented his country as the peace-loving victim of terrorism, but the biggest danger to Israeli citizens (as well as to the Palestinians) is the myth of perpetual Israeli victimhood that has been cultivated by their own government and used to block the way to compromise and peace.

Sarah Glynn, Raphael de Santos, Alex Benchimol, Andree Ryan, Liz Elkind, Catherine Lyons, Seymour Alexander, Abigael Candelas, Suzanne Senior, Barrie Levine, Ruth Sirton, Henry Maitles, For Scottish Jews for a Just Peace, c/o The Unity Centre, 30 Ibrox Street, Glasgow.


Duncan McFarlane (Letters, January 3) writes: "When Hamas leader Haniyeh has offered negotiations without preconditions, why not give talks a chance instead?"

The answer is simple. First, here is the official Hamas line on negotiations, taken from its 1988 Covenant, Article 13: "Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question.

"Some accept, others reject, the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Muslim problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed."

This is followed by another statement: "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavours."

In Article 15, it states: "The day that enemies usurp part of Muslim land, jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of jihad be raised."

It is precisely because of such simplistic and self-defeating attitudes, coupled with suicide bombings and a shameful disregard for human life that Israel is engaged in its present struggle to remove Hamas from the scene.

It is because Hamas has never been, and will never be, a force for peace that Israel has for some time now, as in the past, been involved in close negotiations with the legitimate Palestinian Authority that has suffered so much at the hands of Hamas. There are times when men and women of moral courage have to stand up against the forces of evil.

There were those who told us to negotiate with the Nazis, and there were others, like Winston Churchill, who knew exactly what would happen to us if we did.

Today, Israel is faced with a similar choice and has decided that the moral action is to defeat a band of diehards who, in recent days, have proclaimed that "the purpose of human life is martyrdom".

Dr Denis MacEoin, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne.


In international law, Israel illegally occupies the land it took in 1967 and refused to give back. It has built extensively on this land and has used what are legally Palestinian resources for its own enrichment.

The only way there is going to be a viable Palestinian state is if they get this land back. However, Israel will concede little bits but has no intention of returning this confiscated Palestinian property. Its strategy is to contain and control the Palestinians in two small, unviable enclaves.

Since the people of Gaza elected Hamas in fair and free elections, Gaza has been deliberately starved of resources and access, and turned into an impoverished prison.

It is frustration at this treatment and the continuing deterioration in the circumstances of the people of Gaza that is the stated reason for the end of the ceasefire.

Now the whole public and much of the private infrastructure of Gaza has been shattered in order to make it even less viable. And let us remember that there are already over 12,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Unless we focus on economic justice and return the bulk of confiscated land to the Palestinians, the conflict will continue to fester.

Isobel Lindsay, Biggar.


Along with the demonstrators in the West Bank, in other Middle Eastern countries and in Europe, there have been very large demonstrations in Israel itself. Indeed, 21 people were arrested in Tel Aviv trying to prevent warplanes from taking off, such is the outrage.

It is worth pointing out that this is not an Jew v Arab war: this is a deliberate attempt by a major military power to gain impunity for itself in order to take more and more control over the land that should be Palestine.

Many in Israel are very well aware that the policies and practices of their government and military are not only in breach of international law and human rights conventions, but also go against the best of Jewish principles.

Pat Bryden, Edinburgh.


Contained within the text of Ben Gurion's words, quoted by James A Findlay (The Herald, January 3) is a subtle nuance which is lost on him, and, therefore, one which has consequently led him to a complete misinterpretation of the intended meaning of those words.

Significantly, Ben Gurion prefaced his remarks with the words "They ie, the Arabs see only one thing", a picture which he went on to describe in terms which specifically presented the Arab perception of events seen through Arab eyes.

Implicit in that very choice of words - "they see only one thing" - is the highly illuminating core meaning intended to convey the fact that inherent within the Arab point of view is the belief that any and all other substantially different views are inadmissible to the Arab mind.

Following the precept of "know thine enemy", Ben Gurion was simply reiterating the Arab perception rather than voicing his own.

M Green, Newton Mearns.


In November, our family visited Palestinian friends in Jenin in the West Bank and Israeli family friends near Tel Aviv. They are both ordinary families and they both desperately want the hostilities to end. As our Israeli friend e-mailed: "We pray for the day when all the peoples of this region can live in peace."

This day will be brought forward by all governments, including ours at Westminster and Holyrood, exerting international pressure on the Israeli government to cease its indiscriminate killing.

Herald readers who are feeling horrified and sad and wondering if there's anything they can do can send money, even a very little, to Medical Aid for Palestinians, which works to provide healthcare for the Palestinians. It can be contacted via the website, www.map-uk.org, or on 020 7226 4114.

Dr Lesley Morrison, Peebles.


Your headline, "Why not give talks a chance when Hamas has offered negotiations without preconditions?" (Letters, January 3), is a very reasonable suggestion.

However, the Israelis would not even consider it. Because if one looks at the 60-year history of Israel, one would find that negotiation or peace has never been on the agenda of successive Israeli governments.

Ben Gurion and Moshe Dayan set this mode because their goal was to grab more and more Palestinian land and have fewer Palestinians in Israel.

And they well knew that negotiation and peace would stop them from achieving that goal.

Bashir Maan, Glasgow.