Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
'Crimes in the past do not excuse crimes in the present' says reader
Malcolm (MetroTalk, Thu) asks why Egypt isn’t taking in refugees from Gaza.
The reason is Israel has historically refused and is currently refusing the rights of Palestinians to return to land that Israel controls or occupies, so Egypt doesn’t want to assist in permanently displacing a population.
Israel is also a neighbour of Palestine but has not processed or taken any refugees, despite having two crossings compared with Egypt’s one.
I’m sure a well-funded state such as Israel has the capacity to sift out terrorists. It seems to know who they are when it uses ‘targeted attacks’ on Gaza.
Malcolm says Israel is ‘as responsible for the deaths in this war as the Allies were in killing the millions of innocent civilians in Germany and Japan in World War II’.
International law is clear on the matter of civiliacns being killed in war and had those laws – and a willingness to enforce them – existed at the time, the Allies would have been in breach.
Crimes in the past do not excuse crimes in the present. Paul Smith, Bristol
Reader says refugee policy isn’t a ‘drive-thru’
Malcolm wonders why Egypt won’t fling open the Rafah gate and whisk 2.3million Gazans into Sinai, as though refugee policy were a drive-thru.
Egypt manages one crossing while Israel controls airspace, sea and every other exit. When Israel bombs the Rafah gate and then occupies it, Egypt can hardly run an open-door policy.
Egypt remembers 1948, when Palestinians fled and were never allowed home. Opening Sinai now would help turn temporary ‘shelter’ into permanent expulsion.
When your neighbour’s house is on fire because someone else set it alight and blocks the exits, you don’t blame the neighbour for not jumping through your kitchen window.
Israel imposed the siege, launched the air strikes and controls the crossings – that’s where accountability lies. Az Moss, London
‘It’s exasperating to see zealots congratulating themselves for being arrested’ says reader
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It’s not only deeply troubling but simply exasperating to see zealots congratulating themselves for being arrested for showing support to Palestine Action, a proscribed terrorist organisation (MetroTalk, Wed).
How does supporting the perpetrators or terror and blind hatred do anything for the people of Gaza? And their calls of Israeli ‘genocide’ are similarly misguided and an affront to the millions around the world currently suffering genocide – such as those in Sudan and Yemen. Sara, London
Reader says ‘the Warsaw Pact buffer zone has been gobbled up’
How do we bring peace to Ukraine and Russia? We need Ukraine restored to its 2014 borders in return for giving up attempts to join Nato and the EU.
We also need Nato to pull back from eastern Europe and the establishment of demilitarised zones on Russia’s side of Nato’s border as well as on both sides of the Ukrainian-Russian border. The only obstacle to this is Nato and the EU, especially the latter as it wants to absorb Ukraine to exploit its markets.
Since the Soviet Union’s collapse, the Warsaw Pact buffer zone has been gobbled up by Nato and the EU. Alan Meadowcroft, Oldham
Reader says US criticism of other countries is ‘laughable’ given their history with rights and freedoms
It is farcical the US is trying to accuse other countries of going backwards in terms of human rights and free speech.
This is from the government that set up Ice, whose officers hide their faces when they arrest people for deportation, despite many being US citizens.
A government that has been voting to take more rights away from its people.
And a government that threatens to sue people because they dare to report on the president’s sordid history and refuses to let certain circles of the free press attend White House briefings because it can’t handle answering questions that don’t blindly praise everything it says or does.
The UK is not perfect but it’s laughable for a country determined to take so many rights and freedoms away from its people to be so desperate to divert attention from itself that it attacks how other countries handle this. Matthew, Birmingham
