Letters to the Editor. June 16th: On Israel's war with Iran, benefits of cycling and recycling

Irish Times

8 hours ago

Sir, – Israel aspires to being a parliamentary democracy, yet the Knesset was not consulted or informed in advance of the attack on Iran, effectively a declaration of war. This at a time when Israeli troops are already engaged in the destruction of Gaza.
Israeli citizens are now trying to cope with the inevitable military response from Iran without their public representatives having the opportunity to give their opinion.
It appears that only the US has been afforded that facility. Indeed, the Israeli prime minister has said that he is seeking regime change in Iran, something even the US refrained from pursuing in the first Gulf war.
It is no coincidence that the day before the attack on Iran, the Israeli government just managed to reject an opposition Bill to dissolve parliament. This legislation would have enabled Israeli voters to finally have their say on the war in Gaza and to participate in an election which opinion polls indicate Mr Netanyahu would lose.
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It is now clear that the Israeli government has abandoned all pretence of democratic accountability or adherence to international law. The title of rogue state is hardly misplaced. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN MCDONALD,
Terenure,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – Brendan Butler (Letters, June 14th) thinks Israel needs to be brought to justice for flouting international law. International law is regularly invoked to be used against Israel but for some reason such calls are absent when it comes to Israel's enemies.
When Hamas and Hizbullah were attacking Israel it was greeted by the international community with a collective shrug until Israel hit back. When the regime in Tehran stated again and again its goal of eradicating Israel, outside of a handful of countries, there was barely a peep.
Our government decided this was no big deal and opened a new embassy there. If people invoke international law when Israel acts but are silent when its enemies are acting against Israel they really aren't serious about international law and just see it as a stick with which to beat Israel. – Yours, etc,
PAUL WILLIAMS,
Kilkee,
Co Clare.
Sir, – In its statement criticising Israel, Russia said that: 'Unprovoked military strikes against a sovereign UN member state, its citizens, peaceful cities, and nuclear energy infrastructure are categorically unacceptable.'
Who said irony is dead? – Yours, etc,
PAUL KEAN,
Conyngham Rd,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – I noted that at United Nations it was stated that (yet again) that Israel has the right to defend itself against attack. The implication seems to be that other countries have no right to defend themselves from Israeli aggression. – Yours, etc,
GILL MCCARTHY,
Shillelagh,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – With the escalation of the Israel and Iran war and the possibility of a nuclear war US president Donald Trump is to be congratulated on his supplying bombs and missiles to Israel which will certainly make his birthday one to remember if anyone survives. – Yours, etc,
DAVID MURNANE,
Dunshaughlin,
Co Meath.
The price of oil
Sir, – The average price of 500 litres of home heating oil on June 10th was €447. Israel struck Iran on the 12th. The price today, the 13th, is €459 and climbing rapidly.
The oil in the storage tanks already in Ireland, or the oil currently on the high seas in tankers cannot possibly have become more expensive. This is a scam.
Needless to say the decline in prices (if it comes), will be agonisingly slow. What government agency is supposedly in charge of this rip off? – Yours, etc,
LIAM MCMULLIN,
Co Roscommon.
In defence of Greta Thunberg
Sir, – Regarding Finn McRedmond's column of June 12th
('Greta Thunberg is hard to like, but don't dismiss her
').
There is a great deal to like about Greta Thunberg: her truthful, fearless climate doomerism, the omni-cause activism, the annoyance she inspires in the worst corners of the conservative media, the enviable assurance that without urgent attention the planet is doomed.
Through a carefully managed coalition of an exploitative establishment she is undermined at every turn but Thunberg holds a status based on the consistency, simplicity and directness of her rhetorical approach.
And we are fortunate to have among us a messianic young person who is unafraid to speak truths such as 'the world is getting more grim by the day' and that it is facing 'a sixth mass extinction' event. – Yours, etc,
FINTAN DRURY,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.
Bloomsday and holidays
Sir, – I note with interest the proposal in Frank McNally's
An Irishman's Diary
(June 11th), Bloomsday should be declared a national holiday.
Might I have the temerity to suggest that it should be almost declared one as virtually everyone with whom I discuss the book has almost read it, myself included. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GLEESON.
Killarney,
Co Kerry.
Sir, – Joe Dunne proudly trumpets his personal and crucial modus vivendi approach to tackling Ulysses, googling galore as he goes. ( 'A novel way of reading Ulysses', Letters, June 13th).
Preserving his literary sanity by sitting in front of a computer he engages the labyrinthine trajectory that is Joyce's masterpiece by inviting Mr Google along the enchanted way – a 'not-for-the faint-hearted' cognitive camino of multitudinous creative caverns.
I would suggest he could better take it all in with his eyes closed, reclining at ease and spare his laptop the hassle, by tuning in to RTÉ's archival radio version from 1982 which captures all nuances in a compelling enacted reading of same 'wonder-book'.
Letting it all seep in via the professionally modulated airwave version is 'yer only man'. – Yours, etc,
JIM COSGROVE,
Co Waterford.
Regional development
Sir, – Debate has for many years been focusing on pressures within Dublin as the capital city regarding housing supply and public transport. More recently, there has been much discussion on the Dublin Airport passenger cap which is expected to be exceeded.
While all of the four Dublin local authorities, as well as Oireachtas members for the region, will of course be expected to continue to strive to tackle these challenges, another somewhat more minimised dimension in mainstream discourse on these matters concerns balanced regional development.
Most strikingly for a national standpoint, there ought to be much more of a focus within Government as regards why a mainstream city such as Galway city, which has all the necessary infrastructure to grow more economically including a well-established university, train station and surrounding roads network does not appear to figure more in region-by-region population forecasting.
At present, the population of Galway city is about 85,000 where in comparison the population under the remit of the Dundrum Area Committee alone of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown is by itself about a population of 100,000, which will sharply expand in the decade ahead.
Galway city is also a gateway city to the wider west of Ireland region as a whole.
While I was born and raised in south Dublin, I did spend three years living as a child for a time in Ennis in Co Clare and in such an urban location there are an abundance of shops, school places, playing fields and municipal services provisions as well as housing units with generally a greater typical amount of square footage.
There are many other similar towns around Ireland offering such resources and amenities yet the mainstream focus in debate remains most persistently on Dublin.
One of the impacts with more housing construction in Dublin for instance is that at many more stops in the future the already overcrowded Luas will become almost impossible for passengers for board, necessitating a doubling of bus frequency for many bus routes to be overseen by the National Transport Authority.
If there were to be better meaningful balance in population growth strategy nationwide, such pressures may not become as acute. – Yours, etc,
CLLR JOHN KENNEDY (FG),
Dún Laoghaire.
Co Dublin.
Happy Birthday
Sir, – Would it be curmudgeonly of us not to wish dear leader Kim Don Un a Happy Birthday! – Yours, etc,
CATHY TRACEY,
Dublin.
Cycling and transport
Sir,– The Government has conceded that it won't reach its target of one million electric cars on Irish roads by 2030. Good.
Not only was this target wildly ambitious, it was also deeply irresponsible. Yes, we should electrify all cars, but we should not pursue a target that seeks to add more, and larger, cars to our roads.
Electric or not, planning for more cars means more congestion, more inactivity, and yes, even with electric vehicles, continued problems with local air pollution, to name a few negatives.
It should be clear by now that cars cannot be the future of transport.
So what about a different target?
I propose a million people cycling daily by 2030. Wildly ambitious? Yes, but the health benefits, the reduction in emissions, and the improvements in air quality would be enormous.
Would this require a massive investment in active transport infrastructure? Yes, but remember, the benefits of cycling are almost endless. It is worth it. – Yours, etc,
DR OLA LØKKEN NORDRUM,
Irish Doctors for the Environment,
Dublin 4.
Recycling problems
Sir, - With all the publicity given to recycling nowadays, not much is given to the problem of two or more types of material in the same item. I have just used some cooked turkey which came in a pack consisting of one side paper and the other plastic and the price sticker (paper) stuck on the plastic. Trying to disentangle this is almost impossible.
What happens when these items arrive in the recycling centre? Are they painstakingly separated by the workers there? My guess is that they go into the discard pile.
However, this is more than likely a non-issue. The recent news that about 90 per cent of the plastic recovered in our Deposit Return Scheme is exported is a serious indictment of our commitment to recycling. We need to take responsibility for our own waste. It is costly and environmentally unfriendly to rely on exports and we have no control over the final treatment (or plain dumping) of our rubbish. – Yours etc,
EITHNE O'CALLAGHAN,
Dublin 4.