LETTER: No public debate over Palestine twinning

How lovely. I am really looking forward to the first twinning visit with great excitement.

I wonder if, in this instance, the chief architects of this wonderous event, Coun. Mohammed Iqbal and Mr Richard MacSween, would allow a slight change in the programme.

We, that is the little people, never get to talk to those of our other twin towns. They are all whisked away when they visit.

I for one would welcome the opportunity for a chat. For instance, we could talk about the Palestinians’ lovely habit of strapping children with suicide bombs and sending them off towards Isreali checkpoints.

Readers may remember around three years ago, one such 12-year-old boy had been told that when his bomb exploded it would only kill Israelis and he would be rewarded when he got back. How do we know this? Well, he told the very brave Israeli officer who didn’t shoot him but calmed him down and disabled the bomb.

We could also, I guess, ask about these 7,000-plus rockets fired into Israel, not at military targets but at civilian targets, the simple aim of this is to kill, we could also, I guess, ask why being brave freedom fighters. They hide the rocket launchers in areas near hospitals, near mosques, in heavily populated areas, knowing that to stop the rockets Israel must take these launcher sites out, and in so doing must sadly kill innocent civilians.

The lovely Palestinian Hamas group knows this as well, so are happy to sacrifice their own people in order to make a point. They have a team permanently in the UN building ready to scream atrocity when the Israeli army opens fire, an atrocity they themselves have organised on a number of occasions.

I suppose we could chat for a while over a cuppa about the Palestinian avowed intent to wipe Israel off the map, to kill every one of them, and we could, I suppose, ponder together and ask why would the Israeli people even want to try a dialogue with someone who just wants them dead and denies them the right to exist.

That’s been tried once, and maybe the world and Hamas needs to understand the Israeli people are not up for giving anyone a second try.

All the above, fellow readers, you will find not mentioned at all ever by Mr MacSween and Coun. Iqbal. They seem to have a complete block on these goings-on.

Now I don’t for one minute see this as one-sided.

The Israeli Government has work to do, and continually taking Arab land is maybe not the best way to go about it.

But talking to someone who just wants you dead and nothing else rather limits the scope for agreement, and agreement is not something the Hamas group wants at all. Agreement would mean loss of power for them and a end to all that lovely aid money they manage to get and buy essential goods with like rockets.

I don’t know the motive of Richard MacSween other than it’s always very one-sided, Coun. Iqbal is easy. Guess who needs re-electing at the coming county council elections, and needs to cause a headline?

Rumour has it even grander positions of an MP is in his sights, so self-promotion is the reason there and should be treated with the indifference it deserves.

However, I am still up for this chat with the visitors, but I guess they won’t let me within a mile of them, so twin away guys but not in my name and, I suspect, many, many other names.

MICHAEL SUTCLIFF

Kibble Grove, Brierfield