DO Scottish Labour MPs '"stand with Israel" as stated by their Prime Minister with the Union flag behind him? Does Anas Sarwar "stand with Israel"? Because unless they dissociate themselves from the Starmer policy, that will be their position of record.
Do they support the invasion of Lebanon? Do they support the most intense killing of women and children in a 12-month period in any conflict in recent years as in Oxfam's report?
The Israeli Government is controlled by an extreme, far-right racist group. The Israeli military have committed indiscriminate war crimes. By any definition Mossad is a terrorist organisation. Benjamin Netanyahu has done everything to provoke Iran to retaliate with the intention of drawing the US and its close allies further into the conflict. Keir Starmer has obliged by offering military assistance. So my challenge to the Scottish Labour Party is to decide if this is in their name.
This will not bring security to the people of Israel. It will create a new generation who see it as a brutal enemy and act in response. The only strategy for security is a just settlement for Palestinians.
Isobel Lindsay, Biggar.
Read more letters
- I thought Starmer would be a safe pair of hands. I was wrong
- Holyrood has not improved our democracy one iota. Get rid
Iran acted in self-defence
ON Tuesday (October 1) Iran fired 200 ballistic missiles into Israel. The headlines said “Iran attacks Israel”, when it’s more accurate to say "Iran responds to Israel’s aggressions" or, to use Israel’s perennial excuse, “Iran fires in self-defence”.
• In April, Israel bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing seven people including a top Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander and his deputy.
• In July, Israel killed chief Hamas negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, a guest of the Iranian government who was attending the inauguration of the Iranian president, proving that Israel isn’t serious about a ceasefire in Gaza.
• Last week, Israel dropped 86 2,000-pound US-supplied bunker buster bombs on an entire block in the Dahieh suburb in the south of Beirut, killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and hundreds of civilians.
In response to these provocations, Iran targeted Israeli military and intelligence sites, not apartment buildings, schools or hospitals. But if it had, Israelis have the luxury of bomb shelters; the Palestinians in Gaza don’t.
A child could see who the aggressor is. Israel is like a psychotic toddler and its doting and equally psychotic parent, the US, rather than restraining its mad child, encourages its murderous behaviour.
The US says it doesn’t want a wider regional war. If that were true, it would stop sending weapons to Israel. Without US support, Israel couldn’t execute its genocide in Gaza, terrorise West Bank Palestinians or incinerate apartment buildings in Beirut. But the psychotic child is impervious to reason.
The flow of weapons to Israel will continue because the Israel lobby owns the US government. Benjamin Netanyahu’s July address to Congress where he received 58 standing ovations and his incendiary tirade to the UN General Assembly show that he’s confident of unconditional American backing.
The world’s highest court has ruled that Israel is committing a genocide and that its occupation of Palestinian land is illegal. But apart from South Africa, the Houthis, Hezbollah and now Iran, no one is standing up for the Palestinians and against the genocide.
Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh.
Israel actions justified
THINK about the situation in the Middle East this way. If internationally-recognised terrorist groups are established in a country adjacent to your own and over a relatively short period of time they fire 8,000-plus rockets into your territory, surely the country receiving this seemingly endless barrage - as well as slaughter and hostage-taking incursions - is entitled by the natural laws of self-defence, to launch attacks on the terrorists involved.
We must face it. That is exactly the situation with Israel and Hezbollah/Hamas operating in lieu of Iran, in Lebanon/Gaza.
Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.
Axe Westminster, not Holyrood
IN response to James Millar’s critique on the function of Holyrood (Letters, October 2), I have to ask if he thinks Westminster is any better, because when I look south of the Border or at Wales or Northern Ireland the common man there doesn’t seem to be doing any better and in many cases is worse off than we Scots. Sure, Holyrood has made a hash of some things and has more than its fair share of useless numpties and hangers-on, but Westminster is far worse.
What he seems to have forgotten is that 25 years ago the UK Establishment gave us Holyrood in an attempt to shut us nationalists up and for no other reason. If it is a “pretendy government” that is what it was meant to be; that is why Holyrood has the D’Hondt electoral system rather than Westminster’s “first past the post” method to ensure we never can have an SNP government with a massive majority whereas Keir Starmer currently has one with a meagre 37% of the Westminster vote. That is why Holyrood’s revenue is controlled by Westminster, why it must balance its budget and why its borrowing powers are strictly limited by Westminster.
I agree that Holyrood could do a better job for Scots and Scotland. This could be achieved simply by allocating all the tax raised in Scotland and from products created and produced in Scotland to Holyrood. Currently it all goes to Westminster which then gives Holyrood approximately 40% of it back to run all the public services in Scotland.
In the 25 years that Holyrood has existed, Westminster has run up a colossal UK national debt of £3 trillion and currently pays more interest annually on this accumulated debt than it gives Holyrood to run a country.
If anything needs to go it is Westminster, not Holyrood.
David J Crawford, Glasgow.
• JAMES Millar (Letters, October 2) observes the indisputable shortcomings of Holyrood. Many, if not most, of the MSPs and hangers-on are there only for themselves. I have to agree that to the despair of independence supporters, innovation and vision are clearly above their pay grade. As Mark Twain said: “Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit they would stay out and their dogs would go in.”
Mr Millar concludes: “Bluntly, Holyrood should probably be dismantled and abandoned.”
However, as with all who demand its closure, he fails to address the relative merits of Westminster and the state we find ourselves in as part of the UK.
I wonder why?
Alan Carmichael, Glasgow.
The thwarting of Holyrood
KEVIN McKenna ("Wee pretendy parliament’s’ unenviable defining message", The Herald, October 1) highlights the Scottish Government's record regarding drugs policy, something the Scottish Parliament has limited powers over. This is reserved to Westminster and Westminster has continued to thwart Holyrood's efforts to tackle this issue.
Mr McKenna suggests that the increase to the minimum price for alcohol is a negative move, yet he offers no alternatives. Let's be frank; it would be remiss of the Scottish Parliament to sit on its hands on this matter. My view of 25 years of Scotland's limited-powers Parliament is very different from the picture Mr McKenna paints. There have many been challenges, exacerbated by the challenges of a union of unequals.
Catriona C Clark, Falkirk.
2026 can't come soon enough
EVER since the SNP gained power under Alex Salmond in 2007, albeit with a minority administration, this northerly region of the UK has seen a marked decline in its governance.
As we are all very much aware, when Scotland voted quite emphatically against independence in the 2014 referendum, Mr Salmond immediately resigned, and since then we have had a succession of First Ministers. But nothing has improved in Scotland under this party at either Holyrood or local authority levels, nor would it if independence were ever achieved.
We Scots have witnessed a marked decline in almost all public services, be they to do with health, education, welfare, transport especially west coast ferries, and local authority functions. There is little room for cheer under this ill-functioning administration. We have all become accustomed to the pathetic cry that all problems are down to Westminster. If that is truly the case then let us see the demise of Holyrood, and leave Westminster to sort out all the problems which the SNP insists it has caused.
Today I am certain that for most Scots voters the 2026 Holyrood election cannot come soon enough. It is almost certain that we will see the demise of Scottish nationalism.
Robert IG Scott, Ceres, Fife.
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