Letter: Unionism needs to reassess its response to Israel - it should not be blind to serious flaws in Israeli behaviour

Like the majority of unionists who grew up during the Troubles, I was brought up to be a supporter of Israel who were under attack from Palestinian terrorists in the same way we were under attack from the IRA.

But that natural sympathy should not make us blind to obvious and serious flaws in Israeli behaviour over the past two decades. If you value your friends, you must sometimes be prepared to offer constructive criticism and fooling ourselves with the pretence that “tiny brave Israel” is making sensible decisions is leading to disaster.

It is time the Protestant and unionist community (and indeed the News Letter) reassessed our response to Israel.

For two days in a row the News Letter opinion pieces – an editorial on June 5, (A shameful anti-Israeli step by Trinity, Dublin, Morning View), a separate piece by Ruth Dudley Edwards on June 5 (Irish Republic’s apparent loathing of Jews will have serious consequences), and a piece about USA 'antisemitism' on June 4 (Phelim McAleer: For Jews in America, their allies have turned into their executioners) – have been dominated by attacks on those of us who protest for Palestinian rights.

All of these pieces repeat two logical flaws – they conflate criticism of Israel with attacks on Jews, and they conflate support for Palestinian rights with a denial of Israeli rights.

You must know that Jewish people protest for Palestinian rights. I have spoken to some of them during the Belfast marches. There are plenty of decent Jewish people who are appalled at what is happening in Gaza.

One of your articles focused on the tragic killing of two Jewish diplomatic staff in New York, but made no comment on the 93 people who were killed in Palestine during the same 24 hours. Do you really feel we should be outraged at two deaths but indifferent to 93?

If anyone wants to argue we cannot trust the figures from the Gaza health authority, they should first explain why they support Israel denying access to our UK journalists who could verify what is really happening? What is Israel hiding?

With our history, we in the unionist community should not be making these mistakes. During the Troubles, similar confused thinking conflated expression of nationalism or criticism of the RUC with support for the IRA and led to tit-for-tat sectarian killings which prolonged our conflict. We had plenty of people who would have sought an Israeli style solution where military firepower was used to overcome all opposition. Perhaps because we witnessed the horror of Bosnia and Yugoslavia on TV, we sought a political solution via the Good Friday Agreement rather than a purely military one. Our peace might be seen as imperfect, but unlike in Israel, we no longer murder each other’s children.

We look back on some of our atrocities like Kingsmills or Omagh with horror, but the Palestinian people experience such horror on a daily basis.

To anyone who supports Israel, I ask, where is the path out of this?

Do not pretend that freeing the hostages is the solution – there were no Israeli hostages in the year before Oct 7th but Israel still killed 234 Palestinians during those 12 months and that will never be acceptable.

People on social media have accused me of being naïve (and much worse) because I suggest a political solution should be pursued but what are the alternatives? At one time in Belfast when we felt we could not live with our neighbours we forced them out and burned their houses – that was the start of the Troubles.

There are 2.5m Palestinians (aka Israeli Arabs) in Israel itself, 2.2m in Gaza and around 2.3m in the West Bank. So the total Palestinian/Arab population is around 7m compared to the Jewish of around 7.5m. If Israel cannot find a political solution that allows them to live with their Palestinian neighbours, what other solutions are available?

Israel have repeatedly tried the overwhelming violence option:

• 2008/9 Israel responds to 13 Israeli deaths by killing over 1100 Palestinians:
• 2012 Israel responds to 7 deaths by killing 178 Palestinians;
• 2014 Israel responds to 74 deaths by killing 2,251 Palestinians;
• 2023 Israel responds to 1.2 thousand deaths by killing between 40 and 50 thousand Palestinians with no end in sight.

It is time they tried reaching a political solution with whoever the Palestinians choose to elect and let’s hope they do this before another 20 years of tragedy.

Arnold Carton, Belfast BT6