IS attacks can’t be used to excuse Israeli policy

Kevin McCarthy (Irish Examiner, Letters, November 6) and the press officer at the Israeli embassy (Irish Examiner, November 28) sing from the same hymn book.

It is obscene for them to use condemnation of IS terrorism in Paris to excuse Israeli action in Palestine.

In recent years, IS terrorists have robbed thousands of innocent people of their lives and freedom — the recent, horrific Paris massacre representing only a fragment of their evil-doing. For several decades, Israeli state terrorists have robbed thousands of Palestinians of their land, freedom, dignity and lives.

These two entities — IS and Israel — are different in many ways. One appears to act out of a lunatic fanaticism that has zero regard for human life and makes a mockery of the religion it pretends to represent.

The other appears driven by a crazy sense of entitlement and the knowledge that, for the time being at least, it can rob and oppress with international impunity.

Yet each of these entities — IS and Israel — represents injustice, theft, and oppression. While either entity is allowed to act with impunity, there will never be peace within the body politic.

Charles Hayes

East Ferry

Midleton

Co Cork