After Lebanon, it's time to make Netanyahu give way on Gaza

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 are threatening the security of the entire region.

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

• Why on earth won't the UK condemn Israel?
• The Holyrood system has now been exposed as rotten

Trump sanctions spell danger

THERE are some, indeed their opinions have been reflected on these Letters Pages, who have delighted in the re-election of Donald Trump. I am not one (even as I respect his enormous personal magnetism) but regard his direction of travel over US isolationism and exceptionalism as misguided and backward-looking.

I think world trade is in for a very rough time with Mr Trump's threat to introduce sanctions on his first day in office against Mexico, Canada, China and then presumably to include Europe. Trade is the blood supply to the global economy and cross-border tourniquets can only impoverish us all. Command economies (Russia, China and North Korea) will not suffer as much as the West, and this policy will drive the BRIC countries further into their orbit.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

Gray should be ousted

NEIL Gray's latest taxpayer-funded limo trip, with his wife, was to see a movie. His presence at the screening of The Outrun premiere cannot be justified in light of his ministerial brief for health unless it was a test run to see if movie tickets can be added to prescription "necessities". Whilst the script is about alcohol abuse this is a somewhat tenuous reason for an official presence ("Swinney defends Health Secretary's glitzy movie premiere limo use", heraldscotland, November 21).

Mr Gray was already in trouble over his trips to football matches; this one cannot be justified at all. John Swinney should remove Mr Gray from office.

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

• COULD someone please explain which part of a Health Secretary’s ministerial duties includes using a taxpayer-funded limousine to go to and from a star-studded movie show? On the same subject I suppose Culture Secretary "Airmiles Angus" Robertson had a valid reason for being at the same show. At least with the show being in Edinburgh  he wouldn’t have had to take a flight there. 
It seems that despite the SNP’s non-stop whingeing about being kept short of money by Westminster there always seems to be enough to make sure that the top dogs don’t miss out on the jollies.
Ian Balloch, Grangemouth.

Petition is preposterous

IT cannot be denied. It would be kind to say the new Labour Government has been less than impressive so far, few would or could deny it. It has stumbled from one faux pas to another. However, the online petition for a new General Election (Letters, November 27) is preposterous.

It is very much like the nationalists in Scotland demanding a second referendum to break up the UK after being thumped in the first. Or the sore losers in the Brexit plebiscite demanding another shot at it. Of course, the time may come when popular opinion through the ballot box brings about these changes. In the meantime, those running these absurd online ''polls'', literally open to anyone, anywhere, should be ignored; with the majority it has, Labour can dismiss it entirely.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

Findlay faces a huge task

MARK Smith expressed his thoughts on the journey upon which Russell Findlay has embarked as the new leader of the Scottish Conservatives ("The deep problem with the plan for Scotland’s Tories", The Herald, November 25). He states that Mr Findlay is "promoting mainstream common-sense views" and that the only option for him is "to calmly explain his policies and try to overcome the Tory clichés".

As he reflects upon his somewhat complicated situation, Mr Findlay must look back with some interest at the results of the General Election of 1955 in Scotland when all 71 seats were contested. It was a great success for the Tory Party with 50.1% of the vote and 36 of the 71 seats. These were heady days for the Tories in Scotland. It should, however, be noted that at that election there was no SNP and the Liberals only stood in a small number of the seats.

Mr Findlay has something of a herculean task ahead of him to restore the fortunes of the Tory Party in Scotland, particularly with the establishment and growth of the Reform Party.

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.

Prescott was no titan

CALUM Steele refers to John Prescott as a “parliamentary titan” ("Holyrood is so small-minded compared to Westminster", The Herald, November 27). He commends William Hague for his video tribute to John Prescott and suggests the Holyrood Parliament could do better when marking the passing of former parliamentarians. However, the evidence that the late Mr Prescott was a Titan in my view is scant.

In his time in Parliament he supported wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also backed PFI, increases in tuition fees and did nothing to abolish the most vicious anti-union legislation in Europe. When his time as an MP came to an end he was also happy to accept a seat in the House Of Lords, an undemocratic, exclusive and unelected club.

His record was hardly worthy of any fulsome tribute, whether that’s in Holyrood or Westminster.

Perhaps that’s why the main tribute to him was from a fellow unelected peer like William Hague.

Gerry McMahon, Rutherglen.

John Prescott (Image: PA)

Divorced from reality

YET another casualty of Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband's mad net zero policy: the Vauxhall factory at Luton is closing because of the regime's Soviet-style sales targets, forcing manufacturers to produce battery cars and vans above demand for them ("Minister warns of ‘challenges’ for car makers on top of Luton plant closure", heraldscotland, November 27). This year 10% of van sales and 22% of car sales must be electric, otherwise every vehicle sold which doesn't meet the target will result in a fine of £15,000. The targets will be worse every year thereafter.

If you are running a company and need vans to cover 200 miles a day or have a sales and a service force covering a big area, you don't want your people hanging about waiting on recharge. Time is money. And in the case of the emergency services time is of the essence. I'm beginning to think that Mr Miliband and others with the same fervent belief that they can control the climate are divorced from the reality of everyday life.

William Loneskie, Lauder.