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Security is Israelis’ main concern
• I AM writing partly in response to Forum article on the Gaza conflict by a former Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany (Professor Leslie Baruch Brent, January 15).
I would like to present an alternative viewpoint shared by many Israeli and British Jews.
Personally I have big reservations about the scale and nature of Israel’s operation in Gaza.
But I also share some of the opinions of my family and friends in Israel who, on the whole, support what Israel is doing.
The primary concern for most Israelis is security. Whether you call Hamas terrorists or militants, their stated aim is the destruction of Israel.
Professor Brent claims that because of Israel’s alliance with the US this claim “should not be taken too seriously”.
But Israel is a small country and Hamas are an extremist organisation with the financial and military support of Iran and Syria and their views are shared by many across the Arab world.
Hamas’s greatest crime is the disregard for both Israeli and Palestinian lives.
The thousands of rockets from Gaza have caused terror in southern Israel since the Israelis pulled out of Gaza in 2005.
The rocket attacks have now achieved one of Hamas’s aims, which is to provoke a full-scale conflict with Israel.
And while Israel must take responsibility for the loss of civilian life in Gaza, Hamas are fully aware that the complete cessation of rocket attacks will lead to an Israeli ceasefire and ultimately an easing of the economic blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Like Professor Brent, many Israelis are refugees from Nazi Germany or Holocaust survivors but they do not share the same sense of security of the Jews of Britain.
Most Israelis and many British Jews believe that Hamas has the ultimate power to end this conflict and in time create a strong and viable Palestinian state alongside a secure and peaceful Israel.
Francis Joseph
Gloucester Avenue, NW1
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