Letters - 21 June 2024

From The futility of war to Merging Sufferings with YM

The futility of war

The futility of war is once again becoming plain to see. The waste of human lives and natural resources on armed conflict between two neighbours in Europe is in many ways completely illegal and the fighting must stop.

The effect of the conflict reaches far beyond the battlefields on the ground with many Ukrainian towns and cities suffering missile attacks on a regular basis. The defenders have a right to defend but the aggressor had no right to attack. A political system made rigid by lockdown and grown heavy with militarisation, provoked by terrorism and threatened by a much larger expansion far to the south. An overspill, an accident of protocol.

Then a refusal to give in, a calm, concerted even considerate effort to politely repel, maintained now for over two years, with success. The aggressor is stuck in his own accident of fate, in his own racist diatribe and introverted conceit. The conflict is costing too much money, too many lives. It’s just a question of when the words can be eaten, the face saved and removed from so many channels.

The old industry will be gone along with the hopelessly bad housing and the zero sum outlook. Some will return to rebuild but it will be different. Circular communities with green spaces, arts centres and workshops, carbon neutral industries, clean public transport and safe employment for all. This is possible but first the fighting must stop.

Martin May

Israel-Palestine conflict

How to resolve the seemingly intractable conflict between Israel and Palestinians?

So many dead. So much destruction. So much trauma, past present and future.

For every Israeli child orphaned, a Palestinian family should raise that child as a Jew with all their traditions.

For every Palestinian child orphaned, a Jewish family should raise that child as a Palestinian with all their traditions.

Then perhaps there will be peace.

Gerard Bane