AND so the relentless killing and destruction being carried out by Israel in Gaza goes on. As well as the savagery of the IDF actions, it is truly horrifying to learn that there are now outbreaks of cholera and polio amongst the unfortunate victims of the unrelenting Israeli aggression. Cathy Watkins (Letters, August 26) is quite correct to state that Scotland should not have any "diplomatic relations or engagement with the current state of Israel".

It is quite clear that Israel is guilty of serious war crimes. It is shameful that Israel is not being held to account by Western leaders who will deplore the suffering but shrink from taking decisive action to rein in Benjamin Netanyahu. For decades Israel has ignored successive UN resolutions and deliberately refused to take forward the two-state settlement which might have seen peaceful relations between the two neighbouring peoples. Instead, Israel continues to occupy Palestinian land. The unfortunate Palestinians are oppressed and denied the right to run their own country. Palestinian villages and farms continue to be bulldozed to build yet more illegal settlements, often peopled by religious zealots convinced that the Old Testament gives them the right to evict the Palestinians living there. As a consequence, hundreds of Palestinian residents continue to be driven from their homes to join the growing numbers of the displaced. To make matters worse there are frequent assassinations of Palestinian leaders, often in neighbouring countries, which threaten the security of the entire region.

Mr Netanyahu has interpreted the reluctance of Western leaders to take effective action, such as the immediate banning of arms sales, as giving him a free hand to carry out his merciless campaign. It is quite clear that he is prepared to sacrifice the unfortunate Israeli hostages to pursue not just the destruction of Hamas but to make a two-state solution impossible to implement. It is worth remembering that this is an Israeli Prime Minister who has a track record of unremitting hostility to a Palestinian state.

I have argued before that the only action that would be effective and which might convince decent Israelis that their country is on the road to perdition, is to apply sanctions as were applied effectively to apartheid South Africa and are in force against Putin’s Russia. When eventually a peace conference is held, then there should be two preconditions imposed on Israel. The Palestinian state should be created with its borders guaranteed by international law, as were the borders of newly-formed Belgium in 1839. The Palestinian state should be able to run its own affairs without Israeli interference and critically, it should be allowed to form its own defence force. I would also hope that consideration would be given to the payment of reparations by Israel for their actions which have left Gaza a concrete ruin.

Eric Melvin, Edinburgh.

Read more letters

Relief over Park of Keir axe

THERE will be many sighs of relief in the Dunblane area with the axing of the £40 million tennis project in Park of Keir to honour the legacy of Sir Andy Murray and his brother Jamie ("Murray ‘legacy’ tennis complex shelved", The Herald, August 27).

Due to be built on green belt land the plan attracted much criticism because of its scale and location. With planning permission having been rejected by Stirling Council, a decision upheld by a government reporter, eyebrows were raised when the Scottish Government let it go ahead. The Murray brothers don't need a grandiose sports centre to be remembered by the British people as the history books will speak for themselves.

Again, recently Stirling Council passed an application for a horse harness racing track and facilities on farmland reportedly part of the Bannockburn battlefield. Why the apparent double standards?

Bob MacDougall, Kippen.

Are lights the best we can do?

I CAN offer Mark Smith ("Why does Glasgow have a problem with traffic lights?", The Herald, August 26) simple empirical evidence that traffic lights slow the passage of vehicles.

In 1961, I was able to cycle a round trip of 19.2 miles in 55 minutes from a starting point on Glasgow’s South Side.

My route ran from near Eastwood Church on the south side of Glasgow by Thornliebank Road and the Stewarton road into Ayrshire, then home by the Black Loch road and the Ayr Road, then via Rouken Glen Road on to Thornliebank Road.

I sentimentally retraced this on the bike two years ago. The onset of more than six decades apart, the biggest impedances were traffic lights.

They’re everywhere. Do they breed at night?

While I’m no highway control expert, I have to ask: are traffic lights really the best or only way in which to guide and marshal the passage of vehicles?

Gordon Casely, Crathes.

• MARK Smith makes some interesting points about traffic lights. But one of his suggestions needs to be knocked firmly on the head before it goes any further: the idea that we might follow the practice of those American cities that allow motorists to turn right against a red light when there is no oncoming traffic (turning left in our case, of course).

Mr Smith clearly doesn't know that this manoeuvre is the biggest single cause of accidents involving pedestrians in the cities where it is permitted. According to the US Insurance Institute, the chances of being killed or seriously injured by a car turning right against a red light are between 63% and 89% higher (depending on the type of vehicle involved) than where this is not permitted. Similar figures apply to collisions involving cyclists.

The reason is obvious. If you are turning right against the lights, you have to look to the left to check that there is no oncoming traffic, which means that you won't see pedestrians who are (correctly) crossing the road that you are turning out of. With pedestrian deaths in America now at a 40-year high, local authorities are beginning to see sense. New York, Denver, Washington DC, Seattle and San Francisco are just some of the cities which have banned - or are considering banning - this highly dangerous practice. It would be terrible if Scotland moved in the opposite direction.

Mike Lewis, Edinburgh.

Jamie and Andy MurrayJamie and Andy Murray (Image: PA)

Full marks to the headmistress

BEING roughly of the same vintage as Denis Bruce (Letters, August 26) I thought I’d mention when and where I got my Higher results. Living in Gourock and going to St Columba’s High School in Greenock, we cycled to school that morning as the principal geography teacher was taking his Higher students on a trip to the Marine Biological Station at Millport. We had to cycle to Wemyss Bay to catch the ferry.

We had reached McInroy’s Point, quite near the Cloch Lighthouse in Gourock, when the headmistress caught up with us in her little green Morris Minor. The results had arrived at school after we had left. So, we dumped our bikes, settled ourselves sitting on rocks at the shore edge and our results were read out. As my maiden surname was Allison, I was the first to hear my results. Happy days.

Nell Gillen, Bishopbriggs.