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Dear Sir, IN his lead Viewpoint article on Wednesday 26th 2006, Ray Fleming says “The civilians caught up in conflict in Lebanon and Gaza will draw their own conclusions” in regard to a ceasefire in the Middle East conflicts. What about the Israeli civilians? Why doesn't Mr. Fleming think they're important enough to mention? One hundred and forty rockets were fired by Hezbollah and exploded across northern Israel on the 26th July alone. This wasn't exceptional; every day Israel is fired on. Hezbollah are aiming to kill as many Israeli civilians (both Jewish and Muslim) as possible. Let's not forget, Hezbollah started the current fighting by kidnapping an Israeli soldier. True, they'd done similar things in the past, and Israel didn't react, but surely Israeli has the right to decide when enough's enough? The problem with people like Ray Fleming is that they are anti-Semitics who're in denial. They start conversations with “I'm not an anti-Semitic, some of my best friends are Jewish, but....”. Then if necessary, they may add, if feeling a bit cornered, “I'm not anti-Semitic, but I am anti-Zionist Israel....” Nonsense, to quote Walter Reuther, “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quakes like a duck, then it just may be a duck.” Mr. Fleming is an anti-Semite. Without thinking, he feels and puts into words his empathy solely for the Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. Civilian casualties and deaths, on either side are tragic, but terrorist groups such as Hezbollah (and let's not forget they are terrorists - in the past, they've hijacked an airplane, killing a passenger, and committed many other atrocities) need to be destroyed, or at the very least made many times less powerful (terrorist groups with over 10'000 missiles is a bad idea, even Mr. Fleming would agree with that). Israel is doing it's best to fight a terrorist group. We should be behind it, they're doing our dirty work. Defeating terrorists whose stated objectives are totally against everything modern day Spain and Britain believes in.


Andrew St. John, by e-mail.