Sir,
so Ehud Barak says he will quit politics after the January general election but he refuses to rule out serving again as defence minister (World News 27 November). This sounds a bit like an Israeli ceasefire.
The breaking of the current one occurred last Friday when the IDF shot dead 20-year old Anwar Qudaih near the border. The report by Mark Weiss (26 November) that “both sides continue to observe the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire” is inaccurate and his comment later in the report that “Along some areas of the border, Hamas police kept residents away from the fence, following clashes with Israeli troops on Friday in which a resident was killed and 19 wounded” is deeply mischievous.
Meanwhile the suggestion by Richard Haass (World News, 23 November) that the US Government has a positive role to play in a long term solution is, as one tweet noted last week regarding Tony Blair’s role as middle east peace envoy, “a bit like asking Gary Glitter to chair an enquiry into Jimmy Saville”. Successive US Governments have left a bloody legacy in the Middle East. No real peace will be achieved while they continue to interfere.
Yours etc.
JIM ROCHE,
PRO Steering Committee,
Irish Anti War Movement,
PO Box 9260,
Dublin 1.
Sir,
so Ehud Barak says he will quit politics after the January general election but he refuses to rule out serving again as defence minister (World News 27 November). This sounds a bit like an Israeli ceasefire.
The breaking of the current one occurred last Friday when the IDF shot dead 20-year old Anwar Qudaih near the border. The report by Mark Weiss (26 November) that “both sides continue to observe the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire” is inaccurate and his comment later in the report that “Along some areas of the border, Hamas police kept residents away from the fence, following clashes with Israeli troops on Friday in which a resident was killed and 19 wounded” is deeply mischievous.
Meanwhile the suggestion by Richard Haass (World News, 23 November) that the US Government has a positive role to play in a long term solution is, as one tweet noted last week regarding Tony Blair’s role as middle east peace envoy, “a bit like asking Gary Glitter to chair an enquiry into Jimmy Saville”. Successive US Governments have left a bloody legacy in the Middle East. No real peace will be achieved while they continue to interfere.
Yours etc.
JIM ROCHE,
PRO Steering Committee,
Irish Anti War Movement,
PO Box 9260,
Dublin 1.
