Letters: Unfounded claims about the horror in Gaza will prolong the conflict

SIR – I wept several times yesterday: for the victims of the attack on the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza (report, October 18); at the thought that it was Israel that did this; then, as evidence grew that it was probably an Islamic Jihad rocket, at the belligerent insistence of those who still wanted to blame Israel, and at the fact this claim has caused mass outrage in the Arab world, derailing some nascent progress on stopping the immediate conflict. 

Yet still, the support for Jews in Britain is heart-warming, and despite the demonstrations and anti-Semitic chants, there are people here who understand what Jews have faced for millennia, and that Israel is supposed to be the place where “never again” means something. 

Those who have contacted me, checking on my family’s wellbeing, understand that if Jews are not safe in Israel, then those in the West are not safe either.

Gareth T L Kreike
Bury, Lancashire

SIR – There has been a rise in reports of anti-Semitism in Britain since the attack on Israel (report, October 18). 

The late Lord Sacks, a former chief rabbi, once said that anti-Semitism is like the canary in the coal mine – it warns the world that there is something very wrong with society as a whole, and we ignore this at our peril.

Marta Josephs
London N12

SIR – Both sides are denying responsibility for the attack on the Ahli Arab Hospital. Palestinian authorities claim it was the Israelis, and the Israelis that it was a rogue Islamic Jihad missile, one among many flying near the hospital at the time. 
When such a tragedy happens, it is worth asking: who wins and who loses? 

Civilians are always the losers. Certainly the Israelis have nothing to gain from the opprobrium showered upon them, and Hamas can now claim the moral high ground if people think it was the Israelis. Prior to the Hamas terrorist attack, Israel was due to formalise relations with Saudi Arabia, thus weakening Hamas-backing Iran’s position in the region. That now looks off the table. 

Who wins and who loses?

Mike Wilkinson
London SW14

SIR – If a country is fighting an enemy whose combatants refuse to wear a uniform, then it is in an impossible position, because all casualties on the opposing side can be claimed as civilians regardless of their true status, and it’s impossible to know if the person confronting you is harmless or intent on killing you.

This is the position Israel finds itself in. The rule that combatants be identifiable is there to protect civilian populations. By ignoring this rule, Hamas is deliberately putting its own people at risk.

John Richards
Gosport, Hampshire

Making criminals pay

SIR – You report (October 18) on plans to replace prison sentences of less than one year with community punishments. As a former chair of a community environment group, I know that it is well-nigh impossible to get community payback work done. 

Conditions have to be met – the offenders have to be supervised, there has to be a lavatory nearby – and the physical and human resources for the work are just not available. I fear that the latest Government initiative is just another headline-grabbing soundbite.

Christopher Wakefield
Lymm, Cheshire

Senedd censorship

SIR – GB News has been removed from televisions in the Welsh Senedd, with the channel described as “demeaning to public debate and contrary to our parliament’s values”. 

Here is devolution democracy in action from the Left-wing administration in Wales, which also refused to fly the Israeli flag following the Hamas massacre.

Morgan-Jones
Tonyrefail, Glamorgan

Updated Mozart

SIR – C M Watkins (Letters, October 18) hit the nail on the head – the “updating” of opera by avant-garde directors has damaged support for it in Britain. 

In 2019 I attended a Longborough Festival Opera production of Mozart’s masterpiece Don Giovanni. The baffling set appeared to be a men’s changing room in a sports club, with the principal characters spending much of the time in their underwear. At one point, male characters were shown urinating on stage. Another scene seemed to be on a tropical beach with palm trees. Meanwhile, the words were a paraphrased translation, at times crude and offensive.

Afterwards I wrote a letter of complaint, which was ignored. I have no plans to attend Longborough Festival Opera again any time soon.

Stephen Harris
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Guarding English

SIR – As a teacher of English as a foreign language, I try to maintain a certain level of equanimity regarding neologisms (Letters, October 18), assuring my students that English is a living and evolutionary organism. 

I smiled through clenched teeth when athletes began “to medal”, when “behaviour” ceased to be uncountable and developed the plural “behaviours”, and even when “resources” went the other way and became “resource”. But on reading that someone has been sacked for “expensing his partner’s lunch” – a gerund that even my spellcheck doesn’t recognise – I have decided that protecting my students from linguistic idiocy is now “a must”.

Rory Mulvihill
Naburn, North Yorkshire

SIR – My pet hate is the word “challenging”. It is the excuse for everything, from potholes to politics. 

Please use the correct term that applies to the issue: “difficult”, “impossible”, “regrettable” – or, even, “sorry”.

Charles Steward
Chippenham, Wiltshire

SIR – I cannot understand the term “significant milestone”. Is there such a thing as an insignificant milestone?

Paul Bradshaw
Ramsey, Isle of Man

SIR – Why do people “jump in the shower”?

Priscilla Clarke
Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire

Energy insecurity

SIR – Sir John Armitt, the chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, wants to shut down the whole gas grid by 2050 (Business, October 18). It would be a surprise were Sir John to turn out to be ignorant of the severe economic consequences.

To strip the nation of any diversity and resilience in its energy infrastructure would be foolish. Sir John is, however, correct about one thing: using electricity to make hydrogen to send down the pipes is neither diverse nor economic.

James Anderson
North Ferriby, East Yorkshire

SIR – You do not need a heat pump to have a useful airing cupboard (Letters, October 17). 

I, too, have a large, warm laundry and drying room, which serves as an airing cupboard. Its warmth comes from an oil-fired boiler, installed in 1970, which rumbles along happily all year round.

Jeremy Alhadeff
Great Waltham, Essex

Sustainable housing

SIR – Robert Britnell (Letters, October 17) suggests that Natural England’s opposition to housebuilding is denying homes to thousands of people.

In fact, 99 per cent of planning applications are not opposed by Natural England. Rather than blocking development, Natural England has been working in partnership with developers and planning authorities to support the building of new homes that comply with environmental law.

Natural England has a clear purpose: to enable sustainable development, and we have shown across England that we can create the homes people need while making space for nature. For example, thanks to our advice we have seen the creation of green space and wetlands around new developments, which help the Government achieve its statutory environmental targets.

Edel McGurk
Director, Natural England (South East)
London SW1

Change for the better

SIR – The animal and fish-themed coinage introduced by the then Irish Free State in 1928 was indeed beautiful (Letters, October 16) – but credit should be given to the man who chaired the committee that selected the designs: W B Yeats. A man who combined poetry and patriotism with practicality.

Stephen Pound
London W7

How Latin still sets pupils on course for success

SIR – Having taught Latin for 45 years (Letters, October 17), I’ve found that the way to keep it relevant and fun is to emphasise the decoding skills required to master an inflected language in which word endings take precedence over word order. 

These skills were put to vital work in the Second World War at Bletchley Park and are ever more useful in today’s curriculum in their latest incarnation as coding.

Gareth Burnell
Head of Classics, Beeston Hall School
Cromer, Norfolk 

SIR – Latin becomes a comfort in later life. How is one to get through middle age if one does not pick up Horace’s Odes from time to time?

Neil Sewell-Rutter
Oxford

SIR – It was surely more useful to have been taught Latin badly (Letters, October 17) than to be taught Esperanto well, which was my misfortune in the 1960s in Stoke-on-Trent.

Jane Moth
Stone, Staffordshire

A more efficient path to the perfect roast potato

SIR – Many of the methods for cooking the perfect roast potato suggested by your correspondents are not just time-consuming but also energy-intensive (Letters, October 18).

Mine is to use large baking potatoes, peeled and cut to a suitable size, and soaked in water for 30 minutes to extract the starch. 

I then place a knob of goose fat in a rotary air fryer, which has an internal blade. Drain and dry the potatoes and cook in the air fryer for about 35 minutes. 

The result is perfection at a fraction of the energy cost.

Nigel Bayley
Kidsgrove, Staffordshire

SIR – The greatest enemy of a crisp roast potato is a hungry teenager. Not content with watching the potatoes go golden through the glass door, they open the oven to gaze in amazement at what will shortly be served up, letting out all the heat. It drives me mad.

William Furner
Maidstone, Kent

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