"Isn't it a shame that Jews from all over the world have a right to settle in Israel, but the Palestinians who have lived there for generations have no rights and are constantly uprooted brutally from their ancestral land to make way for the new arrivals and this does not embarrass the enlightened people of the West who consider themselves the champions of human rights and dignity."

This refers to Dr. Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi's letter published in your issue number 289.

No need for me to say more because the writer has said it all. Since he wrote to German Chancellor, he had to limit the contents of his letter to the particular issue and to the behaviour of Germany. However, since my comments are not addressed to any particular issue or country, I have more elbow-room.

For Israel's atrocities, I hold responsible its financiers, backers and supporters, the US and major Western countries who all helped Israel in every possible way and have made it the monster that it has become.

Even now, when it is the most powerful country in the Middle East, and is the only nuclear power there, they constantly talk about Israel's need for security as if it faces an existential threat from the stone-throwing Palestinians.

Isn't it a shame that Jews from all over the world have a right to settle in Israel, but the Palestinians who have lived there for generations have no rights and are constantly uprooted brutally from their ancestral land to make way for the new arrivals and this does not embarrass the enlightened people of the West who consider themselves the champions of human rights and dignity.

The born-again Christians George Bush and Tony Blair revived the Crusaders' spirit with the unjust and brutal invasion of Iraq and encouraged by the results, the two countries, joined by fellow Christians from Europe and elsewhere are taking on Muslim countries one after the other.

With their deep involvement in their new-found mission, they have no time for Palestinians whom they have abandoned completely, and to satisfy any pricks of conscience, throw-in a few dollars or euros in humanitarian aid.

As for US President Barack Obama, who made a passionate speech to Muslims, and who felt no guilt accepting the Nobel Peace Prize to which he was not entitled anyway, has all but abandoned the Palestinians by saying that he had overestimated his ability to bring Palestinians and Israelis to the negotiating table.

A more appropriate statement would have been that he had underestimated his timidity in standing up to Israel by abandoning his settlement-freeze demand on meeting resistance from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On that occasion, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister happily announced on Israeli Radio "There is no question that US is our staunchest friend and that Israel's firm stance on its positions pays."

With no fear of even a mild censure and fully assured of unconditional support, financial, military, diplomatic, moral and immoral, from the US and its accomplices from Europe and elsewhere, Israelis see no reason to curtail their ambitions and keep building more and more settlements and the barrier wall which is negating the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.

I really feel sorry for the Palestinians and in fact for majority of Muslims who are going through a bad spell these days.

S.R.H. Hashmi
Karachi / Pakistan