For and against an admirer of Israel

AS AN advocate of the UN I applaud the industry and determination of a young Jewish people in developing the lands given them in 1947 by that body, as does Breda C Smith (Irish Examiner letters, July 8).

I only differ from her view in the period 1948 onwards.

In stating Israel’s resettlement policy, she omits to mention the forced expatriation of entire Arab communities in 1948 for the purpose of settling the influx of Jewish refugees.

With the externally displaced now numbering four million, I am curious if the state of Israel would retain its viability without using these people as a cheap source of labour, or indeed without its subsidisation by the US.

Would a Palestinian state flourish if its funds were underwritten by the US and if its water supply was not diverted and its fertile land not appropriated by illegal settlers?

However, I disagree most strongly with Ms Smith in her implicit rejection of binding UN resolutions which have been disregarded by this ‘democratic’ state in its pursuit of greater hegemony in the Middle-East.

Damien McBride,

12, St Mary’s Road,

Dundalk,

Co. Louth.