Israeli attack was shameful

I WOULD like to add my voice to that of Israeli President Moshe Katsav in condemning utterly the horrific Israeli Air Force attack in Gaza on Tuesday. Israel's government must take responsibility for this atrocity and do everything it can to prevent its Air Force doing this kind of thing in the future.

I am sick at heart at this, as I am at each and every attack on Israeli citizens. But a missile attack on an apartment building, after midnight when children and adults are asleep in their beds, is no more justifiable than a suicide bombing.

I am appalled and ashamed of the current Israeli government for sanctioning this and other similar operations. I am also appalled and ashamed of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s cold-hearted response to it, stating that it was “one of our greatest successes”. There is a huge divergence of opinion within both the political establishment and civil society in Israel about the policies of the current government. I want to put it on record that such divergence of opinion also extends to many of the local staff of Israeli Embassies too.

Dr Noreen O’Carroll,

Press Officer,

Embassy of Israel,

Dublin