A terrible mistake has been made in allowing Gaza to fester and broil

Hamas in Gaza is currently torturing women and children abducted from Israel, and using them as human shields. Israel has never done anything like that. Hamas also left behind mountains of dead civilians, men women and children.

Hamas has frozen elections in Gaza since 2007. Israel is the only working democracy in the Middle East and has the highest Human Development Index in the world.

Sadly that sparkling HDI doesn’t apply to everyone who is or has been under Israeli government. A terrible mistake has been made in allowing Gaza to fester and broil for years under the control of savage criminals whose hatred of Jews is scarcely rivalled by the Nazis or Islamic State. They simply thirst for another genocide.

Israel’s mistakes are many and Israeli governments step ever further away from reconciliation.

Peace can only come by recognising that nations tenant the land and do not own it. Many peoples have historic claims to Land Israel and surroundings, but chiefly Arabs and Israelites. Neither was the absolute first people in the area. Israel took the land some thousands of years ago and Saracens 1,300 years ago. If they can’t live together they shall die instead.

Arab leaders now saying revenge on revenge just brings more of the same are not wrong. The circle is hard to break.

Living together would be better served with a united statehood, but that demands equity. Driving Arab families out of their ancestral homes in East Jerusalem was a crime driven by motives of profit. No nation can expect to get away with actions like that for ever. That world-record Human Development Index needs to reach all people under Israel’s power.

If that MSP reciting Arab propaganda were capable enough to be dangerous she would have been noticed by now. Her mark in history is a momentary defamation of the State of Israel and its citizens.

Tim Cox, Bern, Switzerland.

Read more: Palestinians will continue to suffer under the rule of Hamas

Big worries for Yousaf

FIRST, Rutherglen and Hamilton West goes from the SNP to Labour, and now SNP MP Lisa Cameron defects to the Tories, abandoning the pursuit of divisive independence. Undoubtedly, deeply worrying for Humza Yousaf.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, under SNP management and despite the efforts of front-line professionals, hospital waiting lists grow, educational standards decline, and Scotland remains the drug death capital of Europe. Was emblazoning Mr Yousaf over the cover of Time magazine sensible from any perspective?

Martin Redfern, Melrose.

Curtice has gone overboard

FOR political nerds, by-elections are the cherry on the cake, but disappointingly the normally excellent Professor Sir John Curtice has gone somewhat overboard with his predictions ("Five ways Scottish Labour is centre stage at party’s UK conference", October 8) and the whole thing leaves questions.

First, Michael Shanks attained less than 22% of the total electorate (hardly a mandate, but congratulations), and fewer people voted for Labour than had in 2019.

Secondly, Michael Shanks was standing on policies which are not those of his party. Was he then an anti-Labour Labour candidate?

Thirdly, by-elections results do not normally extrapolate to a wider demographic, though they might indicate a trend.

The collapse of the SNP vote should wake that party up, but I suspect the blood-letting might still have a way to go. The disturbingly long-running police investigation must have played its part in this result: how do the police extrapolate themselves from it and salvage their reputation?

Does anyone have a clue what Labour policies actually are?

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

Turbine menace to Skye

THANK you for your excellent exclusive in The Big Read re the need for "just transition" to net zero ("New think-tank findings underscore the need for ‘just transition’ to net zero", October 8). Up here on Skye there is something very unjust being pushed through: plans for wind turbines on an industrial scale, many of them 200 metres tall, with little public consultation and seemingly little that we, the residents of Skye, can do apart from write letters to our MSP and Highland councillors. This comes on the back of power transmission lines to Skye being upgraded.

These monster turbines will ruin the scenic beauty of Skye and will likely cause a downturn in visitor numbers. This will be economically bad for Skye and will probably bring house prices down.

We are proud of our dark skies at night up here but there will be no more dark skies when these monster turbines are in place because of the aircraft warning lights they need to have.

People on Skye pay more than most for energy supplies despite us already producing more wind power than would supply all of Skye’s needs. And worst of all it seems that all this new wind-powered energy won’t actually be of any great use because the National Grid can’t handle it and someone will have to pay all these development companies “downtime” for keeping their new wind turbines idle until the Grid is upgraded - in maybe 10,15, 20 years’ time?

This is more than unjust: it doesn’t make sense and it tramples all over local communities on Skye. Personally I am not against green energy but we want local communities to be much more involved and have a say in how, when and what size; and we don’t want to be still paying more than most for our domestic power supplies.

Neil Mackay should do a follow-up story on what is happening on Skye as the rest of Scotland needs to know. I don’t think so many of your readers will be wanting to visit us in the future if we are to be blighted by scores of 200m turbines.

A website has been designed locally to act as a centralised information point for islanders to obtain information on the bigger picture containing some background information and also links to other sources of data – see https://skyewind.co.uk/index.html. Please have a look.

Jim Towers, Carbostmore, Isle of Skye.

Read more: SNP has much to be proud of when it comes to infrastructure projects

A box-ticking exercise

LAST winter’s death toll in Scotland from the cold (2,424) was almost double that of the previous winter (1,320). In this light it is hard to read of people looking for ways to reduce their personal carbon footprint and help meet Scotland’s net zero targets. Scotland’s population (under six million) is dwarfed by China’s 1.42 billion, and China is just one of many countries maintaining their active fossil fuel use. The impact of people’s efforts in their homes in Scotland will make no difference to the climate.

The Scottish Government’s drive to replace gas boilers with heat pumps is a box-ticking exercise. We need instead a campaign to ensure that all homes have suitable heating systems. Those in homes where gas or oil central heating is still the best option should not be penalised.

King Canute knew that he could not make the waves retreat. His policy options included improving flood defences and drainage and educating the population in civil engineering rather than sitting on his throne bidding the tide not to come in.

Belinda Cunnison, Edinburgh.

Dreaded words that haunt me

IN a previous letter I revealed that I thought I had grasped the purpose of mindfulness and how it would enhance my general wellbeing. Unfortunately, I have discovered there is a dark side.

Whilst previously I couldn’t stop random thoughts floating into my mind I now have the opposite problem in that I can’t exclude a group of words from the forefront of my consciousness despite my best efforts. I think it is because I have read, heard or seen them almost constantly for the past few years that they have become hard-wired (or should I say embedded in my memory cloud). I fear they are lodged there permanently.

In no particular order these dread words are: "crisis”, "toxic”,”institutionalised”, “existential”, “catastrophic”, ”emergency”, “apocalyptic" and the unprecedented use of the word “unprecedented”.

Consequently, that part of my brain called the amygdala (see Neil Mackay, "Dark art of neuropolitics allows politicians to mess with your mind", September 10) is in a constant state of alert ready at any moment to propel me into a fight or to flee from a perceived threat.

My general state of constant low-level anxiety is not improved by other concerning changes to everyday use of language: things soar or plummet where they used to rise or fall, raging infernos used to be fires, Arctic conditions were cold snaps, monsoons were downpours ... and so it goes.

Any suggestions for a solution to this personal existential crisis would be most welcome.

Keith Swinley, Ayr.