Letters to the Editor August 29 2025

Judith Joseph,

Birmingham

It seems prime minister Keir Starmer needs reminding that the Balfour Declaration recognised the Jews, and no other, as having an inalienable right to a national home in the land of Israel (renamed "Palestine" by the Romans).

The Declaration was a political gesture which provided an impetus to seal it in law. At San Remo, in 1920, the Allies did just that. In 1922, Churchill, through an act of trickery, divided Palestine, allotting the Jews a mere 22 per cent, from the river to the sea, and the rest to the Hashemites of Saudi Arabia and the Arabs of the region (today's Jordan) - an act nevertheless approved by all 51 members of the League of Nations. This forms an international law valid till today.

Would the prime minister please explain to the Jewish people why he thinks it just to divide the land further and transgress this law?

Eda Spinka

London NW4 

Unfortunately, Mr Netanyahu, by being so zealously determined to sustain his narcissistic, grandiose, personal and political position,

seems insistent on remaining unaware of the tremendous suffering and despair he is causing all round.

Furthermore, by maintaining his ill-advised stance of continued aggression, he is granting Hamas the status and credibility of victimhood.

The fact that Hamas is a terrorist organisation and the perpetrator of such heinous and sub-cultural crimes, is well nigh forgotten.

So, I want to add my voice to the increasing numbers saying that the hostages must be released now, and this war must end now.

Judy Cooper

London NW6

Leeds rally

Targeting the Jewish community of Leeds rather than the government of Israel, by pro-Palestinian demagogues, marks a dangerous escalation in antisemitic rhetoric (The Leeds rally is a warning to the Jewish community and to all of society, Opinion, August 22nd). Can you imagine what would happen if the Muslim community were held responsible for every jihadi outrage, such as the Manchester bombings or 9/11? How can this help the peaceful, communal coexistence, that we all crave? But there is hope. A few weeks ago I went to see Giant, a magnificent play about the antisemitism of Roald Dahl. On a hot Wednesday afternoon, the Harold Pinter Theatre was packed to the rafters with an overwhelmingly non-Jewish audience, many of whom were young.

Stan Labovitch
Windsor

Rabbinic wisdom
The gaffe that soldiers are dying for lack of Torah studies is not the first time a back-suburb rabbi in deepest Israel has dropped a social ignorance brick on religion and studying Talmud to the exclusion of all else. Who has not taught his son a trade has taught him theft - Pirke Avot.

Decades ago there was in Israel a major train and road vehicle level crossing accident with fatal casualties. Some rabbi opined that this was a result of the immodesty of girl soldiers in short skirts. He was quite oblivious to changes of fashion and women's status beyond his shtetl - never mind the beaches, the disconnects between traditional religion and how the mechanical sector of the world works - or not, besides he picked on the IDF.

The Talmud rabbis were all craftsmen or tradesmen and in the same way that many IDF chaplains are former field ranks  it is time to return to recruiting rabbis from those who have practised trades and professions beyond the Talmud bubble. The former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was a success because he had a secular education and could enter the mindset of congregations which have to earn a living in the world as it is.

Frank Adam

Prestwich

VJ day 

My father, Joel Randall and three of his brothers served in Burma. My father and Alfred in the 14th army, James in the Chindits and Louis who had emigrated to the USA, with the American army on the Lido Road. His other three brothers saw active service in Europe. Thankfully all seven safely returned home.

David Randall London W1.