A follow up to my open letter to the Israeli PM

I happened to read this on the John Copeland diary it kind of reinforces what I said on my last post doncha think? E-mail: johncopeland@clara.net - comments welcomed I had an e-mail from an American Jew who was very upset about my critical comments last week on the brutal behaviour of Israel in the current conflict. He wrote: "Consider: As always, you denounce Israel's actions to protect its sovereignty, in this case the kidnapping of one of its soldiers by Hamas. So here's a question for you: Since hostage-taking is universally regarded as an act of war, what "proportionate" action do you propose for Israel?" When I hear about Israel "protecting its sovereignty", I think of similar remarks made by Hitler, attacking neighbouring countries because they supposedly represented a threat to Germany. Stalin was very much in the same mode. Perhaps in any answer we could ask what the sovereignty of Israel actually represents, when it has illegally extended its defined boundaries, occupying Palestinian territory with a brutality that would not have come amiss amongst the Nazis. We could also ask what we are to make of a nation that ignores the resolutions of the United Nations and disregards the judgment of the World Court in building that hideous and cruel wall that has brought so much hardship and distress to the Palestinians. Furthermore, there is the consideration that, according to press reports, Israel is holding hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, all of whom have been given no trial and are being held indefinitely. And finally, is the bombing of civilian targets, banned by international law and the Geneva Convention, as mentioned earlier, a suitable response for the capture of one soldier? Surely not!