ISRAEL has a right to defend its citizens from murders and kidnappings by Hamas. Netanyahu’s government could do this by having far more than 300 to 400 of Israel’s 160,000-strong military permanently guarding the Gaza border, let alone three days after Egypt warned Hamas were planning a cross border attack.

The only chance of hostages being returned alive is negotiation, as even Efraim Halevy, a former head of Mossad, says. This would probably mean releasing Hamas members currently in Israeli prisons. Hamas’ atrocities don’t give the Israeli government or military the right to commit war crimes against the civilian population of Gaza nor to collectively punish the entire population of Gaza by denying them food, water, medicines and fuel.

It’s shocking that Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and some generals have claimed “the entire nation” of Palestinians, or all Gazans, are responsible for Hamas’ crimes. This is as wrong as Hamas’ armed wing thinking it’s ok to kill any Israeli Jew.

The only way to end atrocities and stop putting the people of Israel and Palestine through agony is to allow a Palestinian state with the same full sovereignty and security which Israel demands for itself.

Duncan McFarlane, Carluke

These leaders do not speak for me

IT was heartening to see the thoughtful and measured views of Herald letter writers on the subject of the impending carnage in Gaza. We all feel so frustrated and helpless as we share the tears of both Israelis and Palestinians over the loss of their loved ones.

But why, as the impending genocidal revenge force gathers momentum, do so few Western leaders speak out? Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and his complicit and supine front bench and Ursula Van der Leyden do not speak for me. Their God is not my God. As Afif Safieh, the Catholic Palestinian once their representative in Britain and later in Washington and Moscow said as he received a blessing from the Pope, are we children of a lesser God?

Marjorie Ellis Thompson, Edinburgh

Biden cannot be an option again

IT was with some alarm that I watched the President of the United States in Israel delivering his statement. My alarm, I regret to say, is that it seems clear that he is finding it harder and harder to deliver his messages in a clear and coherent manner. At a time when the world faces global threats from China, Russia and a very dangerous Middle East teetering on the brink of a multi-nation war, the west needs energetic and coherent leadership from the United States of America.

It is absolutely time that the powers that be in the USA must advise President Biden that it is not an option to stand for the presidency again. However I do appreciate the worrying alternative of a Trump Presidency. The United States of America must look long and hard as to what sort of leader will guide them from November 2024.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

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Silence on rail is deafening

WITH weather warnings being issued today for much of Scotland from Thursday onwards, and following on from the scenes shared on social media across Scotland on October 7 and 8 which showed widespread flooding on our railway network, I write to you to highlight the ineptitude and potential negligence of senior Network Rail management in Scotland.

Following the tragic derailment at Carmont near Stonehaven in August 2020, in which three people lost their lives and others suffered life-changing injuries, Network Rail in Scotland gave a commitment to myself amongst others that they would be putting in additional resources to deal with drainage issues across the network. This development was widely welcomed, as the cause of the Carmont disaster was a weather-related infrastructure failure. I have also written to Network Rail on several occasions highlighting my union’s concerns about flooding and landslips on the railway infrastructure in recent times.

During ongoing consultation meetings with RMT representatives at Network Rail over the company’s “Modernising Maintenance” project it has become clear the company no longer intend putting these additional resources into frontline delivery for passengers. Their modernising maintenance project is in fact nothing about modernising anything and is simply a cost-cutting exercise with scores of frontline skilled maintenance workers already leaving the business earlier this month through redundancy.

Prior to these skilled workers exiting the industry, Network Rail were already over reliant on agency and contracting staff to maintain the railway to the standards required and there is no doubt infrastructure failures due to weather or any other reason will increase causing delays and inconvenience for passengers.

The wrong-headed decision to renege on the commitment to introduce specialist drainage teams, in conjunction with cuts to already depleted maintenance squads, will in my view increase the likelihood of more disasters like Carmont and these overpaid directors and senior managers could have blood on their hands.

The Scottish Government regularly state they have brought ScotRail into public ownership under the control of ministers and this is a welcome step. However, Network Rail remains under the control of the dead hand of the Tories at Westminster with the senior executives at the company in Scotland content to remain quiet, while trousering hundreds of thousands of pounds to mismanage the railway.

Earlier this week I wrote to the director of rail at Transport Scotland expressing my concerns about the drainage teams no longer being put in place and copied in the regulator, the Office of Rail and Road as well as the two most senior people at Network Rail in Scotland. So far the silence from all of them is deafening, which in itself is extremely worrying when the potential for derailments and other safety-related incidents which can be catastrophic for workers and passengers alike is increased.

I remain hopeful that common sense will prevail and Network Rail will do the right thing and put the safety of the railway workforce and all users of the network in Scotland before their never-ending agenda of cuts to frontline staff and services to meekly comply with their political paymasters in London.

Gordon Martin, RMT Scotland Organiser