Tired old anti-Israel propaganda trotted out again

IN his column (Irish Examiner, August 31), Hermann Kelly began by saying he was “going to write an article supporting Israel’s right to defend itself”.

It is inconceivable that one could start with that hypothesis and only a sentence later launch into a vituperative argument against the very existence of Israel, even to the point of questioning its legitimacy as a state.

Mr Kelly again trots out every piece of tired old anti-Israel propaganda.

Israel’s enemies gloss over the fact that on November 29, 1947, the UN general assembly voted in favour of an Israeli state.

When, in accordance with the resulting UN resolution 181, Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, it was immediately attacked by Egypt, Syria, Transjordan (itself granted independence by Britain without UN legitimacy only two years earlier), Lebanon and Iraq, supported by other Arab states. Notwithstanding subsequent peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt, other Arab regimes and, more recently, terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah have never relinquished their dream of destroying the Jewish state and have repeatedly threatened and attacked Israel.

Today, Iran openly calls for the destruction of Israel, an existential threat to the Jewish people not heard since the demise of the Nazi empire. In spite of genuine Israeli peace overtures, most recently seen in the Oslo accords brokered by former US President Bill Clinton and rejected by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israel has been subjected to an intifada that saw the murder of hundreds of its citizens — men, women and children — in buses, restaurants and nightclubs.

By referring to the creation of Israel in terms such as ‘original sin’, ‘monumental crime’, ‘grave injustice’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’, Mr Kelly loses all credibility as a disinteresed observer and places himself squarely in the camp of those who ignore the brutal excesses of repressive dictatorships and single out Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, for the harshest judgement of all — that it does not have a right to exist.

Far from supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, Mr Kelly’s attitude is to watch complacently while the state is attacked without mercy by terrorists and then to be outraged when it tries to defend itself.

Edmund Burke famously said that “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.

Mr Kelly is asking good men to do nothing.

Brian Smith

1001 Sherbrooke Street

Montreal

Canada