All the main parties in Israel’s election are playing a game of hawkish one-upmanship that spells trouble for any hope for a peace in the divided country says Daoud Kuttab.

Israeli military intelligence officers recruited the services of Irish speakers so they could translate sensitive information transmitted between Irish soldiers working for the UN in Lebanon.

“Tear gas has been used, live bullets, stun bombs, there have been incursions and arrests, people have been shot, houses ransacked. We are scared of Israeli soldiers, we want it to stop.” These are the words of Leyan, 14, a pupil at the UN school in the Jalazone refugee camp in the West Bank, reports Irish Examiner Political Correspondent Juno McEnroe from the West Bank

“Tear gas has been used, live bullets, stun bombs, there have been incursions and arrests, people have been shot, houses ransacked. We are scared of Israeli soldiers, we want it to stop.”

The Israeli army’s deputy chief of staff has drawn a rebuke from Israeli ministers for comparing pre-Holocaust Germany to trends in Israel today.

Once again Zoe Lawlor resorts to a distorted interpretation of reality to reinforce a hypocritical boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. 

Zoe Lawlor of Gaza Action Ireland uses the isolated killing of Abed al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif, 21, by an Israeli soldier to support a universal claim that Israel engages in a campaign “of extrajudicial executions” in its confrontation with Palestinian terrorists (Letters, April 5).

CONGO: They’re not likely to start barbecuing in the rainforest, but chimpanzees can understand the concept of cooking and are willing to postpone eating raw food, even carrying food some distance to cook it rather than eat immediately, scientists said yesterday.

It is lamentable that the Irish Defence Forces, who perceive themselves committed to the defence of our country, to liberal democracy, and to the rule of law (in times of crisis ) insist that they are descended from Oglaigh na hEireann — the group that staged the 1916 insurrection.

Con Hayes’ defence of Palestinian policies (Letters, Jan 7) cannot go unchallenged.

Daniel Teegan’s account of his conversation with an ex-Israeli soldier (Letters, December 17), depicts the IDF as a rogue force operating outside the norms of international law. 

Ted O’Keeffe (Letters, 3rd October) says that the war in Gaza, in July and August this year, was a bigger world problem than ISIS or ebola.

Updates from Farah Baker, 16, convey the terror of life under conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a 12-hour 'humanitarian window' in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Fergus Finlay in his opinion piece (July 22) cynically assumes that the Israeli Defence forces (IDF) engage in indiscriminate attacks.

President Barack Obama is urging Israelis and Palestinians to restrain themselves and put an end to acts of retribution in the recent round of violence.

Judging by the rhetoric being used by both sides after the discovery of the bodies of the abducted Israeli teenagers, violence will again be the method of choice for Hamas and the Israeli government.

Monique Walsh (Letters, Nov 5) illustrates the value of factual, rational debate, but only because her response is a series of omissions and gross misrepresentation.

Hebron style is clad in full battle gear, it seems.

The award-winning creator of hit TV show Homeland has written to the British defence secretary protesting against the British army’s participation in medical training involving live pigs shot by marksmen.

THE websites of Israel’s army and intelligence services were down yesterday, two days after a hacker group appeared to threaten the Jewish state over its interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla.

I WAS astonished to read the letter of January 17 by Daniel Teegan concerning Israel and the Palestinians. Unfortunately, it reproduced many tired clichés, characteristic of those who seek to demonise the State of Israel.

SOME prominent Irish tour operators have recommenced promoting tours to the Holy Land.

Israeli authorities boarded a British yacht, took down its flag and "almost strip searched" its crew as they attempted to break the blockade to Gaza, a Briton on board said today.

ISRAELI troops were not ready for the violent resistance they met when they boarded a Gaza-bound aid ship and killed nine pro-Palestinian activists, the country’s top military officer said yesterday.

I NOTE the ship attacked by the Israeli defence forces (IDF) was funded by the Turkish IHH, which is widely accepted to be an extreme fundamentalist organisation with links to al-Quaida.

US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton yesterday urged Israel to make “difficult but necessary choices” for Middle East peace as she warned that Jewish settlements undermine fresh negotiations.

YOUR paper carried an article on August 14 regarding allegations by Human Rights Watch which accused the Israeli Defence Forces of shooting 11 civilians carrying “white flags” during Operation Cast-Lead.

MORE than two dozen Israeli soldiers who fought in the Gaza war say the military forced Palestinians to serve as human shields and used reckless firepower that caused needless deaths, according to a report released yesterday.

Israel’s military used reckless force in Gaza earlier this year, resulting in needless deaths and damage, a group of former Israeli soldiers said in a report today.

Israeli troops battled Palestinian gunmen in a suburb of Gaza City today in one of the fiercest ground battles so far as Israel’s military inched toward Gaza’s population centres and residents braced for an expansion of the offensive.

Israel rained bombs and leaflets on Gaza, pounding suspected rocket sites and tunnels used by Hamas militants and warning of a wider offensive despite frantic diplomacy to end the bloodshed.

Israeli forces pounded rocket-launching sites and smuggling tunnels in Gaza today and planes dropped leaflets warning of an escalation in attacks, as Palestinian militants fired at least 15 more rockets at Israel.

US President George W Bush, in his first public reaction to Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza, has said that the Jewish state was justified in protecting itself against Hamas militants.

THE biggest test for the world’s dairy industry is how it responds to the global environmental agenda.

The Israeli military has suspended the commander of an operation in which troops ordered Palestinian youths in the West Bank to stand in front of their vehicle to protect it from stones thrown by locals, the army spokesman’s office said today.

Israel will keep targeting Palestinian rocket squads in Gaza despite the risk of inadvertently hitting civilians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.

Hundreds of thousands of people packed Beirut’s bombed-out suburbs for a Hezbollah “victory over Israel” rally today, where guerrilla leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah was expected to deliver a historic speech about his group’s weapons.

The Israeli pullout from Lebanon was unlikely to be completed before the weekend, a senior army officer said today.

CHARLES HAYES (Irish Examiner letters, August 14) grossly misrepresents and misquotes my letter of August 9.

A UN-run observation post just inside Israel was struck today during fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

The international Red Cross tonight called on Israel to pull troops out of Palestinian Red Crescent premises in Nablus.

ISRAELI forces yesterday withdrew from five villages in southern Lebanon and UN troops set up new checkpoints as Lebanese troops rolled into the area.