I am appalled at your decision to print the letter from Michael McEnhill proposing that Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel should be tried for ‘heinous war crimes’, and drawing a parallel between him and a Nazi general tried at Nuremberg (‘Answer for your heinous war crimes’, Your Views, August 8). First, what on earth does the Israel-Hamas conflict have to do with a local paper? Your subject is Borehamwood and Elstree, not the Middle East. The rest of the letters, and indeed the entire paper, are about local or at most UK affairs only. Why, I wonder, have you singled Israel out?

Secondly, if Mr McEnhill wishes to guard war criminals, why does he not offer his services in respect of the Hamas leadership, President Assad of Syria, or even Tony Blair and David Cameron, who have presided over hundreds of civilian kills by the British army in Iraq and Afghanistan? Again, one has to wonder why Israel’s PM is being singled out. Thirdly, if you feel that the Israel-Hamas conflict is a fit and proper subject for the Borehamwood and Elstree Times, why is there nothing whatsoever in your paper expressing the opposite point of view? You could, for example, point out that Hamas is a UN-designated terrorist organisation (just like Al Quaeda, the Taliban, ISIS and Boko Haram), which deliberately sites its missiles and tunnel entrances in schools, mosques, hospitals and houses, using its own people as human shields in order to maximise civilian casualties and score the kind of media points that you are so obligingly giving it. You could point out that it was Hamas, not Israel, which started this conflict by launching 1,400 rockets at Israel over the past few months, with the sole intention of murdering Israeli civilians. If Britain was under rocket attack from a terrorist organisation, what would Mr McEnhill expect our government to do? Israel’s intention is to protect its own people by destroying Hamas’s machinery of terror. Unlike Hamas, it does not set out to kill civilians, but it is in an impossible position due to Hamas’s use of its own population as human shields. You could point out that Israel is seeking to destroy the tunnel network created by Hamas – tunnels as much as six storeys deep and wide enough to drive vehicles through – which were created solely in order to kidnap and murder Israeli civilians. You could point out that Hamas built these tunnels by stealing the money and building materials provided by the international community for the benefit of the people of Gaza. You could point out that Hamas refuses to let civilians shelter in the tunnels during Israeli attacks. I could go on. Will you?

Fourthly, and perhaps most importantly from a local point of view (and local issues are your legitimate concern), Borehamwood, Elstree and its surrounding areas are home to some of the largest Jewish communities in the UK. There are a number of Jewish schools and nurseries here, including Yavneh College and Hertsmere Jewish Primary School, not to mention numerous synagogues, Jewish shops and other institutions.

As has been widely observed, anti-Semitism in Britain has increased sharply in the wake of this conflict, not least due to the highly slanted attitude of much of the British media. Vicious anti-Semitic incidents are being reported all the time – over 200 in July alone, compared with 304 from January to June 2014, according to the Community Security Trust.

The unjustified and deeply upsetting association of Jew-Israel-Nazi printed so casually in your paper may well contribute towards hostility, perhaps even violence, towards the loyal, law-abiding British citizens of the Jewish faith living in this area. Your behaviour is at best irresponsible, at worst dangerous.

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