EDITOR – Last week Israel bombed a World Central Kitchen vehicle delivering aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza, killing three aid workers as well as two bystanders who had rushed to the scene to help.
This comes after Israel killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in an April bombing. The killings have once again forced the organisation to pause lifesaving food deliveries to Gaza, where famine has become widespread amid the 15-month Israeli siege.
Starvation in Gaza has been widespread for months in the face of Israel’s ongoing siege and blockade of humanitarian aid.
The UN reports that 345,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity and the World Food Programme reports that only 20% of the basic food assistance is reaching the 1.1m people who depend on the UN agency for survival.
The UN reports that 345,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. (Photo: Shutterstock)
On October 13th, the Biden administration gave the Israeli government 30 days to ‘surge all forms of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza’, or else further US weapons shipments could be blocked.
Israel responded by throttling humanitarian aid to the lowest level in months, but the discredited White House has not taken any action to hold Israel accountable. European governments and the politicians of the ‘free world’ are so beholden to the might and hegemony of the US and its satrap Israel, they only offer pious wishes for peace in Palestine but facilitate this US-Israeli war with armaments support.
Justice is always won, not gifted. In all liberation struggles, human agency and revolutionary movements are the driving force.
Only with seemingly endless organising, planning, mobilising, resisting, disrupting, connecting struggles, and always learning can the oppressed ultimately prevail.
Unfortunately, this is of little comfort to the indigenous Palestinian women and children being murdered in droves as Israel ethnically ‘cleanses’ them in a mass extermination bid.
Daniel Teegan,
Union Hall.
Ordinary people are victims of the genocide
EDITOR – THE war crimes and genocide committed by Israel in Gaza, including bombing schools hospitals and places of refuge, have left 50,000 dead. Most of the dead men, women, and children have nothing to do with Hamas.
The ordinary people of Israel will have their reputation damaged globally by the genocide in Gaza. It has already resulted in increased conflict in the wider Middle East and represents a serious threat to international peace, not to mention humanitarian laws.
We all need to work tirelessly to end this murder of innocents and get the hostages released.
Noel Harrington,
Kinsale.
Micheál should recall his own party’s history
EDITOR – From the general media reports, it looks like the two main parties Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and a smaller third party labour or the Social Democrats or a number of independents will make up our new government in January.
It’s desirable and commendable to have stability in our government for our people and for future foreign investments in the country.
In most of the European countries, coalition governments make up governments and it’s very much the norm nowadays.
It can be good for the majority of the population with a fair share of representation at the centre of government.
With regards to Sinn Féin, they are now as large as Fine Gael and not far behind Fianna Fail in their number of TDs and represent a good portion of our population.
While not agreeing with their policies l feel they should also be part of our government and should not be dismissed out of hand by our Tánaiste Micheál Martin, even for discussions.
We should all remember the founding members of Fianna Fáil were former IRA irregulars who fought against the provisional government in a bitter civil war in 1922 and 1923.
Later on they put aside their weapons and took their place in Dáil Eireann.
They became the largest political party in Ireland in the late 20s or early 30s.
We should also remember our brothers and sisters in the Unionist parties in the Northern Ireland government who agreed to share government with Sinn Féin and the other smaller parties to make up the Northern Assembly.
Once people accept the democratic principle and the rule of law they should be part of the decision-making process in any future governments and not in opposition all the time.
Jeremiah McCarthy,
Tawnies Grove,
Clonakilty.
Let’s not rush to find a ‘magic wand’ for dairy
EDITOR – If lessons are learnt from the advent of the Covid era to the present time, would it not be prudent to say, ‘Hold your horses’ on the proposition of rolling out methane-reducing feed additives to dairy cattle? Would it not be prudent to facilitate extensive deliberations on the matter by those for and against the novel idea?
Let’s not forget the saga of what had been initially labelled as a ‘novel’ coronavirus and initial belief that it would take ‘two weeks to flatten the curve’.
From what we know so far, a Dutch manufacturing company is making strides to bring its version to market and Bill Gates has serious investments in the development of similar products.
The ‘speed-of-science’ should assert if such products are given to cows – ie will associated contaminants manifest in human-consuming milk, a dairy product that is essential for good health?
If those ingredients in the food chain cause widespread human constipation, enhancing constipation-relieving medical prescriptions, will this create yet another ‘can of worms’ that will need to be addressed.
There is no mention of possible side effects by the pro-introduction lobbyists of the rapidly-developed methane-reducing pharmaceutical ‘magic wand’.
Can we be sure this potential ‘cash cow’ will reduce methane emissions from cows, on average by 27%?
Joe Terry,
Blarney.
