ALL the violence from whatever side in the conflict is to be condemned, but in Mr Balejcsik's world, Israel is made to seem as innocent as Mary Poppins.

He says Israel never knowingly kills civilians yet fails to explain how such a statement is compatible with shooting children in a school in Gaza while they sit in their classroom, and firing tank shells at a crowd of innocent civilians.

Apache helicopter gunships and bulldozers are frequently used on civilian homes, with many well documented cases of people being killed as their houses are destroyed around them.

Altogether, around four times the number of Palestinians have been killed in the past four years as Israelis. Many of them children.

Mr Balejcsik tries to criticise others for a lack of historical knowledge but he ought to get his facts straight.

Firstly, Martin Luther King was a Baptist, not a Catholic.

More importantly, the foundation of Israel on May 14, 1948, was a unilateral declaration of independence which came in the middle of an Israeli terrorist campaign by groups such as the Irgun.

Many Palestinian people were massacred in cold blood.Peace will only ever come if there is proper justice for both sides.

All the violence is terrible, most particularly the suicide bombings in Israel. But Israeli violence against Palestinians is equally wrong and is far more widespread.

Dr Stephen Leah,

Gresley Court, Acomb,

York.

Updated: 10:37 Wednesday, July 27, 2005