Media reaction to Israeli aid effort shows bias

We should all be grateful to Dr Kevin McCarthy (‘Israel leads the way with medical help for Nepal’, May 4) for informing us that Israel “has 250 first response medical technicians, doctors and nurses on the ground in Nepal ... compared to the United States with 54, China with 62, Italy with 15 or France with 11”.

Considering the relative sizes of their populations this is truly remarkable.

Those of us who rely on the BBC, and other Western news outlets, would not otherwise have been aware of this since the word “Israel” was never mentioned in their reporting the global response to the Nepalese tragedy.

With this sort of omission, unlike that of any that can possibly be seen as showing it in an unfavourable light, it is no wonder that the “first reaction [of most people in the Western world] is a critical one where Israel is concerned”.

Martin D Stern

Hanover Gardens

Salford

England