BARRY KAYE, of Counterpoint, St Mary's Court, Highweek Road, Newton Abbot, writes:
I seek to clarify a number of points raised in the letters from Mr and Mrs Anthony (Government is weak) and David Halpin (Seek evidence of War Crimes) in this paper of January 30.
Mr Anthony states the 'vicious illegal war' against Gaza was caused b y a weak government taking advantage of the Obama inauguration.
Would Messrs Anthony and Halpin not consider the 6,000 missiles launched against Israeli citizens since 2004 a war crime? The UN has indubitably stated rocketing innocent civilians is a war crime. Israel has said enough is enough but despite the recent ceasefire Hamas has begun again to fire long--range missiles.
Along with the Grad, with a range of 25 miles, Hamas will be deploying the Kfar, with a range of 50 miles, bringing the whole of Israel into range.
The missiles, supplied by Iran, are smuggled through Egypt; Hamas, a client of Iran, is fighting Iran's war by proxy.
Mr Halpin naively asserts that the rocket attacks are undertaken by 'guerilla units'. Rest assured, nothing takes place militarily without the sayso of Hamas command.
Israel, for Mr Anthony's information created by UN mandate in l948, has suffered five wars of attrition by the Arabs, ending in l974, followed by 20 years of suicide bombing, now largely discontinued by the erection of the security barrier.
Children and the disabled are now being used by the bombers, with the explosive detonated remotely.
Israel occupies the Golan heights to prevent it being used as a gun platform, lobbing shells on those below.
Settlement building, by the religious right, is an issue Israel seeks to curb and there is much bitterness between the two sides
While Hamas uses innocent civilians as human shields firing from civilian locations, deaths and destruction will continue. Using humans as a shield is a practice that the civilised world should consider anathema.
Messrs Anthony and Halpin really do need a reality check.