Dear Sir/Madam,

 

In today's Telegraph George Jones claims that Jenny Tonge has called for "cocaine to be legalised and sold over the counter like wine or beer" ("Outspoken MP from a long line of Liberals").

 

Personally, I find it easier to believe that George Jones is a malicious liar.

 

I hope that the Telegraph will have the decency to publish its apology on the front page of Monday's edition.

 

On reflection I realise that the whole article was intended to discredit Jenny Tonge, along with her criticism of Israel for provoking the actions of suicide bombers. 

 

As painful as it must be for many, particularly Israelis and Jews, to accept, the truth is that Israel does carry, not all, but certainly some of the responsibility for the suicide bombings; just as Germany and Japan carried some responsibility for the bombing of their civilian populations in World War 2. 

 

I am not suggesting that the bombers are ever justified. They are not. But it is important to understand WHY they do it.

 

The two situations cannot be compared, you say, and you are right, of course. Unlike the Palestinians, Britain and America were not occupied by German or Japanese forces when they bombed their cities, nor were they in any danger of losing the war, and thus had even less justification for what they did.

 

Those who refuse to face up to Israel's responsibility, but simply condemn the bombers as terrorists are not helping to end the violence, but to perpetuate it.

 

By distorting what they say and discrediting those, like Jenny Tonge, who speak the painful truth, you too, dear editor, are helping to perpetuate (not end!) the violence.

 

On yet further reflection I realise that you, like most people, are probably quite incapable of seeing the situation from any perspective other than your own. Suicide bombers who strike at Israel are "evil terrorists" and that for you is the end of it. Where the British airmen who dropped their bombs on German civilians evil terrorists? Of course not. Two utterly different situations: one an act of noble heroism, the other an act of evil terrorism. The consequences, although not the scale, are very similar: death, suffering and the torn and broken bodies of innocents.

 

Why do you not see the hypocrisy?