Letters
Letters to the editor, 14 June 2024
Hostage rescues and setting the record straight
June 13, 2024 23:00
1 min read
Operation Arnon is surely one of Israel’s most formidable and daring rescue operations, proving beyond doubt that the Jewish state will spare no effort in rescuing its citizens from captivity.
Yet that is not quite how sections of the media have reported it. They have focused on regurgitating a claim from the Hamas run health ministry that over 200 Palestinian civilians were killed in the operation. For one thing, any casualty figures cited by Hamas must be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt. Moreover, it was Hamas that both chose to take the hostages and place them in densely packed residential neighbourhoods. It was inevitable that there would be civilian casualties in a rescue operation, especially when the IDF came under fire as they were extracting the hostages.
Responsibility for Palestinian deaths thus rests solely with Hamas, not with Israel.
Dr Jeremy Havardi
Director, B’nai B’rith UK Bureau of International Affairs
Caen 1944. An evil organisation guilty of unspeakable atrocities, committed to destroying all Jews, embeds its troops within the civilian population. The only course of action to dislodge and defeat them is to attack. Thousands of civilians are killed and 80 years later the world considers it to have been a necessary action to defeat an evil enemy.
Gaza 2024. An evil organisation guilty of unspeakable atrocities, committed to destroying all Jews, embeds its troops within the civilian population. The only course of action to dislodge and defeat them is to attack. Thousands of civilians are killed but this time the world condemns it as an unnecessary action to defeat an evil enemy.
Paul Lewis
Edinburgh
I read the article about Dundee (JC2, 7 June) which failed to mention that Dundee is twinned with Nablus. Since 1980, the Palestinian flag has flown above the City Council and there have been mutual visits and projects. Dundee is one of the most anti-Zionist towns in Scotland.
One of the instigators of the twinning was a young George Galloway.
Meryl Cohen
London NW1
FOR THE RECORD:
The Jewish Chronicle apologises to Parents 4 Palestine Brighton who were mentioned in a report on 28 April 2024 (Waves of antisemitism hit the south coast).
The group was not contacted pre-publication, which was our mistake. They fully refute the claims made in the article.
We apologise to Parents 4 Palestine Brighton and its members for the distress and harm caused.