IF three-year-old Palestinian children were not taught to sing “When I grow up I want to be a suicide bomber in Jerusalem” as they march into kindergarten, and if the atlas used by school-aged children contained a map of Israel rather than a blank space, and if the children were not taught to hate Israel and hate and kill Jews, Palestinian children would not attack Israeli citizens, and there would be no need to arrest one Palestinian child.
Mahmoud Abbas was offered 97 per cent of eastern Jerusalem by Ehud Olmert and said no.
The Hamas terrorists who run Gaza preach hatred against Israel, continue to fire rockets into Sderot, and hate Abbas and the PA. Israel has released 104 murderers and terrorists as a show of good faith in order to sit down to try and negotiate a peaceful solution, for no result.
Barry Mond, Caulfield North, Vic
IT’S been a continual bugbear of the impartial observer to hear Israel and its supporters continually refuse to accept as fact the entirely inappropriate treatment of Palestinian children (”Israel in U-turn on child justice”, 8-9/2). This is seen by many as a major impediment to resumption of something approaching cordial relations in the Middle East.
It is refreshing, therefore, to learn that there is to be an about-face on the discriminatory policies employed by the Israelis, and they are to be congratulated for taking this step.
And as for those who have criticised people like myself as anti-Semitic and supporters of terrorism for taking such a stance ... please now address your complaints to the Israeli Knesset.
Stephen Morgan, Carina Heights, Qld
THE mistreatment of Palestinian children is deplorable but who made them part of the Middle East conflict? Certainly not Israel. Indeed, it was Israeli prime minister Golda Meir who said: “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”
George Fishman, Vaucluse, NSW