Ridiculous comparison of Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto

Letter to the Editor of The Irish Times, Dublin, Ireland

Madam, - Senator Norris (12th January) sees fit to pursue his ridiculous comparison of the Warsaw Ghetto with the Gaza situation by citing a series of totally false analogies which are easily refutable, point by point.

1. "In Gaza a sizeable ethnic group is concentrated in a tiny area under the arrogant and contemptuous supervision of military overlords."

This at least is true. The population of Gaza is in effect being held hostage by a murderous band of military overlords, the Hamas terrorist organisation, who use them as human shields with total disregard for their safety.

2. "This entire population group has been slowly strangled in preparation for military incursion."

The strangulation is a result of Hamas using all resources for amassing rockets, instead of seeing to the needs of the civilian population. Recall that when Israel vacated Gaza in 2005, it left a thriving Greenhouse-based economy, which Hamas saw fit to destroy.

3. "There has been an almost total collapse in terms of sewage, food and energy delivery as well as medical facilities."

This in spite of the thousands of deliveries of truckloads of supplies by Israel since 2005. Israel has also since 2005 been supplying electricity and other energy to Gaza - in full knowledge that munitions manufacturing is

one of the uses to which it has been applied.

4. "The outside world has been deliberately kept at bay and apart from Al-Jazeera virtually no independent reporting is permitted while the noose has been remorselessly tightened.

Has the good Senator from his eyrie in the mountains of Cyprus failed to notice that Gaza is the most reported area in the world today? In military campaigns, for example the Falklands, the Press is excluded from the battlefield for their own safety. In a confined area such as Gaza this is imperative - and the Israelis know only too well that should reporters lose their lives, the IDF will be blamed.

5. "There have been attempts on the part of the besieged to overcome Supply difficulties through the digging of tunnels."

Yes, true. But the "supply difficulties" - that is, primarily the supply of rockets from Iran - seem to have been overcome, vide the over 6000 rockets shot into southern Israel in the past few years.

6. "Resistance has been organised by commando groups and this has been met by the unleashing of a massive mechanised assault."

Resistance to what? May I remand Senator Norris that there has not been a single square inch of Gaza occupied by Israelis since 2005? The "resistance" that Hamas talks about is to the very existence of a Jewish state, which they make very clear in their Covenant.

The final point made by Senator Norris is that "Hamas was legitimately elected in Gaza". This is absolutely correct, just as Hitler was the democratically-elected Leader of the German people.

But that did not prevent Britain from declaring war on the whole German nation, with far less provocation than Israel has had to endure from Gaza over the last three years.

Yours etc.

Allan Solomon

Watford,UK