Israel says it is attacking Gaza to stop unprovoked cross-border rocket attacks into southern Israel by Hamas militants (“ >Govt. refusal to debate Gaza stalls RS ,” July 17). Launching rockets on populated areas constitute an act of war, but Israel says its bombings are justified. On its part, Hamas says its rocket strikes are justified too because Israel’s “devastating economic blockade” against Gaza is an act of war. The ground reality is that Israel targets terrorists and Hamas targets civilians. It would be diplomatically unwise for India to take sides in this situation.
C.V. Venugopalan
Palakkad
As pointed out by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in the Lok Sabha, there must be a mechanism in Parliament to express the concerns of the people of India over pressing global issues like the Gaza conflict and the Middle East crisis. The government and Parliament should consider this suggestion in order to raise India’s stature in global politics, dominated by the West.
Sanjay Bhobhariya,
Jodhpur
The deeper meaning one can read into the statement of Ms. Swaraj is that she considers the lives of hundreds of Palestinians to be less important than the material benefits India gets from Israel. It has been India's policy since Independence to support the Palestinian cause. By maintaining silence, India will be sending out the message that it is drifting from its policy of supporting the oppressed.
Syed Khaleeq,
Hyderabad
It is unfortunate to read Mr. Yahel Vilan’s letter (July 17) attempting to justify the ghoulish activities by the Israeli military. The war being waged on the Palestinians since 1948 has flouted every provision in international law. Palestinians are being harassed, detained, locked up, stopped from going to work and to school and operating legitimate businesses because of who they are and not because of what they have done. Palestinians have every right to resist the illegal occupation of their land.
Mohd. Adnan Uddin,
Hyderabad
Hamas, an acknowledged terrorist organisation, fires over 500 missiles into Israel (Editorial, July 14). Just because hardly any Israeli gets killed, is Israel not supposed to retaliate? One fails to understand the logic. Did Hamas fire those rockets as part of a fireworks display? When a country which values the lives of its citizens retaliates, it will do everything it can to wipe out those launch sites. There will be massive collateral damage and civilians will be killed as Hamas does use them as a human shield.
T. Sanjay,
Coimbatore
