Israel-Gaza conflict

I unreservedly condemn the Hamas attack on Israel and the killing, torture and hostage taking. 

However, the indiscriminate and horrific bombardment of hospitals, mosques, refugee camps and residential areas, with the consequent deaths of thousands of civilian men, women and children and thousands more maimed and traumatised, is unforgivable.

A child reacts as people salvage belongings from the rubble of a damaged building following strikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: AFP

The Palestinian people of the West Bank have, for decades, seen the development of illegal Israeli settlements, unfortunately condoned by the West and, in particular, the United States, by their lack of action; the inhumane treatment of Palestinians of Gaza going to work daily in Israel, having to queue for hours in hot sun in summer and cold in winter before being allowed to enter. And, lastly, only a couple of days ago, Israeli soldiers and settlers, shooting and killing over 150 Palestinians in the West Bank, including many children was an overreaction. Furthermore, the settlers, allegedly acting illegally, were being watched by Israeli soldiers.

Is it any wonder, then, that this has led to greater and greater resentment? Once again, this is no justification for Hamas attacks but these issues need to be addressed once a ceasefire has been agreed upon by both sides. The UN needs to take a firmer stand and Hamas needs to release the hostages and both sides need to agree to a ceasefire.

Simon Whitney-Long – Sliema

The moral issue

Lately, Passato e Presente on Rai Storia TV featured a reappraisal of Enrico Berlinguer. I am not, and have never been a Communist, but I must own up that I admired, and still admire, Berlinguer. 

There is solid evangelical truth in some Marxist tenets. These have been and will continue to remain forever valid: for example, from everyone according to his means and to everyone according to his needs, resonates so very palpably Luke’s parable of the Good Samaritan.  

Liberation theology, after all, maybe with the great Padre Arrupe’s revolutionary notion of the first option for the poor as its fons et origo, is by no means such a distant echo of Marx.

Following the Moro assassination, the concept of the Compromesso Storico collapsed; however, the PCI, under Berlinguer, not only with his visionary Eurocomunismo but with the new concept of La Questione Morale, really hit the ground running. Was it an early warning signal anticipating the 1990s’ Mani Pulite saga?

I couldn’t help but draw comparisons with our sorry plight. Our island’s moral fibre cannot tolerate any more the cancerous growth, so long gnawing at its very soul.

The clarion call of our political institutions should be La Questione Morale. Everything else pales insignificantly.

Amabile Galea – Balzan