The letter from Michael McEnhill (‘Answer for your heinous war crimes’, Your Views, August 8) warrants a response which is both measured and factual. 

  • Hamas is a heinous, Islamist terror organisation, which has declared war on the State of Israel – a fully-functioning democratic country whose Prime Minister is Benjamin Netanyahu.
  • It is not a crime, rather the prime duty of the government of this or any country to act in self-defence so as to provide security for its population. The crime is perpetuated by Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel and kill all of the Jews who live there.
  • Hamas are accountable for the terrible suffering incurred by the people of Gaza having no qualms concerning the tally of civilian casualties emanating from their actions, be they Israeli or Palestinian. 
  • Rockets are launched by Hamas indiscriminately into Israel from densely populated residential areas in Gaza, as well as hospitals, schools and even mosques. In some instances their weaponry is stored in such locations.
  •  The propaganda machine employed by Hamas has sadly proved to be highly effective in always portraying the Palestinians as the victims and the blame lying with Israel for any campaigns.
  • Hamas is the aggressor every time by starting and continuing to attack Israel. Fortunately, an increasing number of journalists, politicians, celebrities and sports people have been publicly countering the many lies put about by Hamas.
  • Hamas is imbued with a hatred of Israel and Jews inducing the use of tactics, which has resulted in continuing hostilities, loss of life and property damage on an unprecedented scale in such military offensives and ongoing distorted media coverage of Israel.

I do not consider that Israel has any case to answer for. In the event that such an allegation is levied as you suggested, Israel as a nation state or any of its politicians will not be fairly tried by the International Court of Justice, which is part of the UN.

The UN have an unenviable record of passing numerous resolutions critical of Israel and generally focusing unduly on their activities to the exclusion of many countries around the world that do commit heinous crimes.

Oppressive regimes everywhere have appalling human rights records and sponsor or are directly involved in violent disputes taking place today, being responsible for the deaths and displacement of thousands, if not millions of innocent people. The UN never seems to admonish anybody for such abhorrent behaviour – only Israel attracts such opprobrium.

Let us hope that Operation Protective Edge succeeds in stopping the rockets being fired by Hamas into Israel so that both Israelis and Palestinians no longer have to live in constant fear and insecurity.

Stephen Miller

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