Past mistakes are to blame for this tragedy

S O many newspaper reports, including the

This very sad and tragic situation has been developing and worsening, and it appears to be intractable due, I think, to the intolerance shown over 60 years ago when the United Nations granted the Jewish people a homeland/state in Palestine.

At that time, the Jewish people were then, due to all of the horrors inflicted upon them by the Nazi holocaust, just so desperate to even stay alive, just as desperate for a homeland, as the people of Gaza sadly are today.

The natural sympathy shown by many reports prompts me to recall that, as a young man, I was in the Army, serving in Palestine.

As you will know, the British had the mandate to govern the area, which had become almost impossible due to politicians’ mistakes in the past, such as the Balfour declaration, which eventually led to the formation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

During this time, British troops had the miserable job of trying to control the Jewish terrorists, who were fighting, in their eyes, for a homeland. Our Navy ships were patrolling the seas, looking for Jewish immigrant ships, often packed with homeless, desperate people, and the Navy would try to stop their ships reaching Palestine, so the British forces were not too popular with the Jewish side.

And, from the Arab point of view, the setting-up of the state of Israel by the UN was in fact a betrayal by the British Government. So, from both sides – Jew and Arab – Britain was largely to blame and our forces’ job was virtually impossible.

In anticipation of the now legitimate impending setting-up of the new Israel homeland by the UN, the fury of the Arab people was most obvious and it was frequently vowed by most Arabs: “We will drive the Yehudis into the sea.” And this was a vow even before the state of Israel existed.

These Jewish refugees were probably as desperate then as the people of Gaza today, appeared to be shown no sympathy by the Arabs but only a great deal of hatred.

This hatred has been compounded over the years even more so astonishingly by the PLO and Hamas fighting each other; even young children being taught to hate the Jewish people.

It is a very sad, emotive state and I think that there is a possible danger of these problems becoming a very eventual issue here in this country due, in a large degree, to the amount of new arrivals to Britain that are sympathetic to the anti-Israeli cause. It is something that I hope that the media will give a great, great deal of logical consideration to before becoming too hysterically emotive. I still do recall that just before I left Palestine in March 1948 the Arabs were vowing: “We will drive the Yehudis into the sea.” The Yehudis are zift.

I’ve only written a fraction of what I could.

Mr E A Cox, Hanham.

WITH reference to the article in the Evening Post on Tuesday, June 8, headed “A calm head amid the flying bullets”.

A state of armed conflict exists between Israel and the Hamas regime controlling Gaza. Under International Law Israel has the right to protect the lives of its civilians and has undertaken measures to defend itself including the imposition of a maritime blockade to curb the smuggling of weapons by Hamas.

Five of the six vessels offered passive resistance to the Israeli boarding parties and the redirection of these vessels to Ashdod was accomplished in a peaceful manner. This indicates clearly that Israel had no intention of harming any flotilla protestors.

However the acts on this sixth ship, the Mavi Marmara, violently attacked the Israeli landing party with knives, iron bars and hatchets, chains and other weapons. Some activists also discharged firearms and explosives and threw an Israeli officer over the side of the ship.

The premeditated nature of the violence was evident by the clubs, knives and bullet-proof vests that were found aboard the ship and the co-ordinated actions of the attackers.

Having expected behaviour in keeping with the flotilla’s numerous declarations of peaceful intent the soldiers were instead confronted with a rapidly deteriorating “lynch” situation.

After several Israeli personnel were wounded, some critically, the landing party was forced to act in self-defence. Regrettably nine of the attackers were killed. The organisation responsible for the ship, the IHH, promote an extreme anti-western agenda which has been implicated in the recruitment and financing of Jihadist terrorists worldwide including al-Qaeda. Large qualities of cash were found on board, some in the pockets of the attacker and most in courier belts ready for transfer to the Hamas.

Israel does not prevent aid from reaching Gaza via established land-based crossings and there is no lack of humanitarian aid to the Strip. Israel repeatedly proposed that the flotilla organisers land in the port of Ashdod and transfer their aid to Gaza through the existing overland crossings. Had the aid been delivered directed to Ashdod in the first place, as Israel offered, the entire tragic incident could have been avoided.

Israel is a sovereign nation if ever there was one, being birthed from the holocaust over 60 years ago.

David Corp, Bedminster.

HOW can we rightly condemn the bigotry of the BNP, yet overlook the hateful anti-Semitic Charter which underpins Hamas?

Even Neil Maggs of the politically correct Respect Party can praise these Middle Eastern “politicians” for standing up for the people they represent.

Someone with a different perspective is Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of a founding member of Hamas, who has come to regard the organisation as “a stupid, cruel, self-service terrorist group”.

After seeking political asylum in the USA, he has detailed his experiences – the betrayals and deceptions, the tit-for-tat assassinations and suicide bombings – in his book

Will it be as easy for the “peace-activists” to overlook the recent history of Iran as it proceeds to ship “aid” to Gaza?

Following the re-election last year of Holocaust-denying, hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there has been a brutal suppression of the protests challenging the rigged voting system, with an estimated 5,000 Iranians jailed and hundreds killed. This has not, however, led to spontaneous outbursts of “humanitarian” solidarity on the streets of Britain.

Furthermore, as Egypt is also restricting the flow of aid into Gaza, will Bristol councillors and activists be calling for the boycott of all Egyptian goods?

I agree with “Concerned, Downend” and accept that Israel can get things wrong and that the desperate plight of people living in Gaza needs to be addressed.

However, the current fashionable support for Hamas reminds me of those who fawned over the “freedom-fighters” of the IRA 20 or 30 years ago, and that leaves me equally concerned.

Name and address supplied.