To the Editor,
Re: United Nations backed forming state of Israel, Letters, Feb. 16.
Most of the article is factual, however, Hezbollah is in Lebanon. They captured Israeli soldiers six years ago, after which Israel went into Lebanon for a short retaliation and we got long range missiles fired across half of Israel.
It is Hamas who is in Gaza. Originally it was Yasser Arafat and the PLO.
Israel probably encouraged Hamas in the PLO’s place, and they were voted in promising health, education etc., to the citizens. However, they later attacked anyone who didn’t support them.
Their charter calls for Israel’s destruction. They fired rockets into Israel for several years, until Israel invaded Gaza. They placed themselves and weapons within civilian areas, mosques, schools and ambulances so there were casualties in spite of Israel dropping leaflets and making telephone calls to the population to beware.
The rockets started up again and last November, Israel carried out air attacks, trying to target known Hamas spots. But of course there were casualties of civilians.
The West Bank is a whole new ongoing situation. The Palestinians, under Arafat and later through Abbas, were offered 95 per cent of what they wanted with land swaps, but refused. Israel believes any agreement would be merely a stepping stone to attacking Israel.
Bear in mind that had Jordan not attacked Israel in 1967, Israel would not have captured and occupied the West Bank and made Jerusalem undivided.
We could go back earlier to see the changes in the map before Israel, but it would not help.
There is such a massive Arab public relations machine whereas, surprisingly, that of Israel is not effective.
People who do not know the true situation believe whatever they read in the papers, and anti-zionism becomes anti-semitism.
Geoff Nenzer
Tel Aviv, Israel