Were your late father to be alive today Mr McEnhill, I would be happy to thank him for guarding, on our behalf, General Von Rundstedt until he went to trial at Nuremberg (‘Answer for your heinous war crimes’, Your Views, August 8). However, if your late father or any of us had been subjected to rocket attacks for eight years from a neighbour, and more recently terrorised by the thought that the neighbour had created a network of underground tunnels into our country, ready to abduct and kidnap us and our children, would we all not desperately want our government to stop this heinous behaviour?

The fact that the Israeli government is protecting its people from tyranny, as Britain did in the Second World War, is nothing short of what we should expect them to do. This is in stark contrast to Syria’s Bashar al Assad, who instead of giving his people a democratic right to vote, has instead fought a bloody and gruesome battle with part of Syria’s population killing tens of thousands.

We should remember that Benjamin Netanyahu is an elected (and goodness knows the electoral system in Israel is a rigorous one) Prime Minister, who had the full backing of the majority of the Israeli population in this action. I can’t help feeling that were the same scenario to be in the UK, we also would fully support our Government.

There is, however, an imbalance in the fighting and defensive capability of the two sides. Israel’s iron dome defence system has prevented thousands of killings over the past eight years. Israel has the ability to retaliate to the exact spot a rocket was launched from. If they are launched from densely populated areas, there will be innocent civilians hurt or killed. It makes my heart sink, and I feel sick every time I hear of this happening to innocent civilian Palestinians. However, if you really wanted to protect your people, fight for your rights, as you see them, would you fire a rocket from the next door house, knowing a reprisal would soon be on its way? The Israeli Defence Force has done all it can to warn people a retaliation fire is on it’s way. There will regrettably, very sadly, be civilian casualties.

And we must ask ourselves, who are the real enemy of the beleaguered Palestinian population? Is it the neighbours who have just had enough and can’t stand any more, or is it a Hamas leadership who instead of building infrastructure and investment in their country have spent millions of international dollars poured into the country on rockets and tunnels?

Hamas needed to pick a fight with Israel a month ago, to bolster its waining support. It has very few friends in the outside world and is deemed a terrorist organisation by the EU and UN amongst others. Egypt’s unwillingness to open its border with Gaza is very telling.

The world is becoming a very dangerous place, particularly with the rise of the Islamic State. If your path crossed with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he may well crucify you, or me, for not converting to Islam. Benjamin Netanyahu would be glad to let you live your life as you wanted to side by side with him, as long as it was in peace.

Julie Smith

Newlands Avenue, Radlett