Letters: Leave them alone

Palestine. Photo / Michael Panse

I fear your brilliant cartoonist Evans has not read both sides of the Israeli Palestine border disputes (June 13).

Two major wars have been launched against Israel from parts of the West Bank.

Children's school buses have been machine-gunned from Palestinian territory. Israel took over the Golan Heights because of constant shelling of Israeli towns.

Missile fire from the Gaza Strip has caused return action from Israel, who have medically treated urgent cases of illness from that area in Israeli hospitals that were the targets.

Although 27 per cent of the Jewish population keep the Sabbath, 65 per cent of the Jewish population of Israel say they have no religion or are atheists, 2.1 per cent are Christian, and 8.3 per cent of the large Arab population of Israel are Christian.

There is an increasing number of Palestinians who see the advantages of co-operation with Israel , and benefiting from its science and amazing achievements. As yet too few Islamic political leaders have sworn to have Israel wiped off the face of the Earth.

Israel is the only democratic nation in the Middle East. They are not saints, but leave them alone, and the Middle East and the whole world will benefit.

As a small boy in 1938 I remember walking in the main street of a New Zealand city with my beautiful Christian grandmother as she was called a bloody Jewess.

I'm old enough to remember Hitler's Holocaust. Over six million Jews, children, old and young, brutally fed into the Nazi furnaces.

Israel must secure its borders and have a buffer zone. They know their history. They will never forget it. Leave them alone; 1.6 million Arabs live in Israel.

SHALOM
Kerikeri