SIR – So there we have it: a former Hamas military leader comes to Britain, is granted citizenship and provided with a council house, and begins organising fellow supporters (“Ex-Hamas chief behind pro-Palestine protests”, report, November 7).
The worry is: how many more are plotting in this way?
Malcolm Allen
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
SIR – Pleading with fanatics has never worked (“Met begs activists to halt Armistice protest”, report, November 7). That a poppy seller can be attacked (report, November 7) is testament to the police having lost all credibility in protecting our citizens.
Camilla Coats-Carr
Teddington, Middlesex
SIR – I thoroughly object to Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, continually referring to the pro-Palestinian protests as “hate marches”.
It is an affront to the many people genuinely and peacefully protesting against the killing of thousands of innocent Palestinians caught up in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Anthony Haslam
Farnham, Surrey
SIR – If the demonstrators were marching and calling for Palestinians to be freed from Hamas, I might join them.
Alec Bradley
Kidderminster, Worcestershire
SIR – (Letters, November 7) argues that “wars only end when weapons are laid down and talking begins”. This, he says, is the “repeated lesson of history”.
Yet history also teaches us that unconditional surrender is often the successful route. A case in point is the Second World War. The Allies’ aim was not a negotiated settlement but total destruction of the machinery of Nazi Germany, together with the imprisonment or execution of its cheerleaders at Nuremberg. Mr Lander goes on to say that “even if Hamas is destroyed there will be others to replace it”. But the Nazis were never replaced.
I have no idea how the conflict in Gaza will end. Looking to history for answers is understandable, but it does not provide a slam-dunk case for a ceasefire or for talks between the warring parties. Hitler never wanted to talk. For him, it was win or lose. I fear Hamas has the same mindset.
Phil Angell
Helston, Cornwall
SIR – While the Hamas attack on Israel was barbaric, Israel’s response – killing a reported 10,000 people in Gaza, including at least 6,000 women and children – is disproportionate.
Meeting violence with violence achieves nothing. There must be a ceasefire for humanitarian reasons, if nothing else.
Duncan Rayner
Sunningdale, Berkshire
Insipid King’s Speech
SIR – Yesterday’s King’s Speech was rather like those low-fat spreads that pretend to be butter. Did it really contain what people are asking for?
The smoking ban, panic over AI, abolishing A-levels, driverless cars – I am not sure these are the things people want to hear about. The things they do want, however, were barely mentioned by the King: lower taxes; cheaper food; better roads; an end to the relentless persecution of motorists and landlords; a more robust police force; tougher sentencing for shoplifting and eco vandalism; tougher laws to combat hate crime; facing up to the absurdity of the proposed gender and trans laws in Scotland; a more efficient NHS; a self-sufficient, long-term energy policy; not to mention stopping the profligacy of giving millions to India and China – or, nearer to home, HS2 and net zero.
A golden opportunity to close the gap with Labour before the next general election has, I fear, been lost.
Dr Martin Henry
Good Easter, Essex
Earlier diagnosis
SIR – Richard House describes the delay in diagnosis of his subdural haematoma (Features, November 6).
His account follows frequent reports in the media of delay in the diagnosis of cancer, sepsis and other infections, as well as many common and rarer diseases, with disastrous consequences.
When I arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1982 as a new “fellow” in medicine, my chief, an immensely wise clinician and researcher at Harvard, who had practised in Britain earlier…
Read More: A very British welcome for an ex-Hamas leader and anti-Israel agitator