ISRAEL MUST CHANGE ITS WAYS.

The appalling action of the Israeli authorities in ordering troops to fire on unarmed civilians on the opposite side of the border with Gaza, killing more than 50 and wounding many more, has been rightly condemned by the United Nations and many others. Appallingly, the United States has supported the Israeli action although how they can do this is a mystery.

Ever since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, there has been nothing but misery for the Palestinian Arabs who were driven from their homes by the incoming Jewish immigrants. Israel has developed as a strongly right wing, militaristic and jingoistic state which has ignored international law and human rights conventions. At every opportunity, it has expanded its territory and has implemented a form of apartheid against its Arab population; it continues to occupy land gained in the 1967 war with Egypt and, in further opposition to international law, it continues to build new settlements on this land which is, in every legal sense, land that belongs to Arabs.

Israel is a rogue state which justifies every vicious and brutal act by reference to the Holocaust and its supposed 'right to exist'. It is hardly surprising that the Palestinian, and other Arabs, have tried to fight back against invaders who have, in their eyes, stolen their land and now oppress and even murder them. That it has been a shockingly unbalanced fight is apparent from the relative numbers of casualties on the two sides which results from the vast difference between them in terms of available armaments and military training.

It is gratifying that the United Nations and other international organisations have condemned the latest Israeli atrocity but it seems unlikely that Israel will take any notice; while the United States continues to support their every action, Israel is effectively immune to international pressure to med its ways. Nothing will change in the Middle East until the United States changes its positions and the butchers of Israel are brought under control.