Jonathan Freedland tells us that “Israel’s war should be with Hamas alone, not the people of Gaza” (Warning: Benjamin Netanyahu is walking right into Hamas’s trap, 20 October). So how is it going to do that? How do you tell Hamas militants from non-combatants? How do you know Hamas military locations from civilian buildings?
The answer is that you can’t. A terrorist organisation is made up of civilians who wish to fight, and they can move between being combatants and civilians at will. The locations used by terrorists can change all the time. Thus a state waging a war against a terrorist organisation can never win using military means alone. This applies as much to Israel as to the British in Northern Ireland or the Americans and British in Afghanistan.
The only solution to the Middle East has to be a political one. Otherwise, Israel will just continue this indefinite war.
Yoav Tzabar
Edinburgh
• Like Jonathan Freedland, I dread the possible Israeli invasion of Gaza. However, in 2005, when Israel ended its occupation of Gaza, the Palestinians elected Hamas, whose charter called for the destruction of Israel and its replacement by an Islamic state, something that could only be realised by the killing or expulsion of all Israel’s Jews. The events of 7/10 highlight the reality that those aims are still paramount.
Mr Freedland writes that Israel’s mission “should be clear: to ensure that Hamas is stripped of the capacity ever to repeat what it did two weeks ago”. But if, like me he doesn’t want an invasion, how does he suggest that Israel completes that mission?
Paul Miller
London
• I wish and hope that people all over the world read Jonathan Freedland’s pure logic and humanity. Hamas is an enemy that goads and manipulates through unimaginable violence, torture and terror. Hamas loves to recruit the Israeli armed forces to its cause – to make Gazans suffer so much that their hate of Israel makes them, in turn, recruits for Hamas. All the while Iran, the greatest threat to peace in the region, grows stronger.
Most Arab nations in the region want a compromise peace. They would all accept Israel executing a long-term, effective evisceration of Hamas if it did not entail the collateral suffering of Palestinian civilians. Historically, Israel has been very successful in conducting such campaigns.
Name and address supplied
• It is heartening to hear from Jonathan Freedland’s article that there is a general consensus in Israel that Netanyahu’s grip is failing. A new leader is needed who can bring a different dialogue. This is a sectarian conflict, which we in Britain have experience of. Northern Ireland’s Catholics had reason to be angry with their fellow countrymen. They were treated as second-class citizens in their own country. Jews and Arabs have lived side by side happily before in this land and can again, but only when they are treated equally by the state.
Nicola Rosen
London
• Can we put Jonathan Freedland in charge of the world, please? He makes so much sense out of so much chaos. Some “world leaders” would benefit from his wisdom, if they could just pause for breath and listen to people outside their own dangerous echo chambers for a moment.
Penny Barkas
Kenton, Suffolk
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