Bloody price of Hezbollah’s human shield tactics

FINTAN LANE (Irish Examiner letters, September 14) continues to ignore all evidence, including that from the UN, concerning the Shebaa Farms on the border of Lebanon and Syria.

He asserts, falsely, that Israel was the recent aggressor, not Hezbollah. Again he ignores UN resolution 1701 which states clearly that Hezbollah attacked Israel on July 12 last.

Mr Lane claims that more than 1,100 Lebanese civilians were murdered by the Israeli military, conveniently forgetting that people who are killed in a war are not murdered.

While every life is sacred as far as Israel is concerned, I wish it was as sacred to Muslims extremists not only in Lebanon where Hezbollah contravened the Geneva conventions by using civilians as a shield, but also in Iraq where they kill more people every week than the total killed in Lebanon. The 1,100 dead also included Hezbollah fighters who were dressed as civilians.

Unfortunately, it is people like Mr Lane who muddy the waters and make peace even more difficult to achieve.

He should write to the Palestinian Authority and ask them why they have turned down the offer of a Palestinian state so many times. After all, it takes two to tango, or even to sit round a table to talk.

Henry Guterman

42 Lidgate Grove

Didsbury

Manchester M20 6TS

England