Attack on Israel

Once again Israel is made to pay a heavy price for her very existence. The killing of seven people and injury of 26 in an attack on a civilian bus (Report, 19 August) is another tragic episode in the campaign of terrorism which Hamas and other militant groups have waged against the state of Israel. There can be no justification for the extreme violence that was used not against soldiers or even settlers, but against Israelis on a bus well within the Green Line, simply going about their daily business. It is a shameful state of affairs that the international community (with certain exceptions) is not standing by Israel at this time of great hardship. The Palestinians seem more concerned with a meaningless declaration in the United Nations than controlling the armed militants and terrorist thugs that terrorise the region and hold both peoples hostage.