Miliband in action
One has to call into question our PM’s appointment of Ed Miliband.
He has emboldened Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel’s other enemies both overseas and in the UK and imposed an embargo on the produce of the West Bank. Israel is an important ally of this country, supplying vital intelligence, pharmaceuticals and arms, all of which he discounts.
He is photographed shaking hands with a high-ranking official of the Iranian regime knowing they are sponsors of widespread terrorism and inhumanity in the Middle East and America’s implacable enemy. How does he think this will play out with Donald Trump?
All this makes the mistake of appointing Peter Mandelson as our US ambassador seem like a harmless political blip.
John D Berman
New Barnet
I note that the foreign secretary found time in New York to meet the city’s mayor. According to the official readout, the two discussed climate change and bringing peace to Palestine.
England has 27 directly elected mayors, and Britain has several hundred ceremonial ones. How many of them has Ed Miliband met?
Were he to meet the Mayor of Scunthorpe (were the town to have one), would they discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Or Sudan’s civil war, which has driven more than ten million people from their homes? Perhaps Myanmar, or the fighting in the Congo, Mali and Burkina Faso? I suspect Scunthorpe would rather talk about the future of its steelworks.
Likewise, Mayor Mamdani might spend less time on the Middle East and more on the nearly 100,000 people sleeping in his city’s shelters each night.
Since this was plainly a personal-interest outing, the taxpayer is owed a refund. We are also owed one further reassurance: that Mr Net Zero will be returning home by boat.
Shimon Cohen
London N2
Ireland’s footballers
Amid the anti-Israel and clearly antisemitic furore surrounding the Israel v Ireland football matches, the Irish forget one inalienable fact.
In addition to the rich and active history of the relatively small Jewish community within its shores, Ireland has another good reason to thank Jewish people.
The UK real estate company British Land led by Sir John Ritblat and my late father Cyril Metliss was the instigator of the real estate development of Ireland, in particular the commercial centre of Dublin, including the Financial Services Centre on the site of the Custom House Docks, the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre and the Setanta Centre with their local partners Mark Kavanagh and John Mulcahy of Jones Lang.
British Land cleverly saw the real-estate opportunities in a hitherto underdeveloped economy and it was my late father Cyril (with fellow director Stephen Kalman) who drove the initiative forward, helping to put Ireland on the world map both commercially and otherwise. The Financial Services Centre has attracted investors and companies from all over the world.
His name is still respected with great esteem in Dublin corporate and real-estate circles, and the Metliss family are justly proud of his achievements there.
I had the good fortune to see all of this first hand being their lawyer – as well as confronting a baying anti-Israel mob at the time of the Ireland v Israel World Cup qualifying match in June 2005. Nothing ever changes.
Ireland and its football players may well lambast Israel but the reality is that Jewish entrepreneurs were the ones behind the development of modern-day commercial Ireland, bringing wealth, influence and recognition to their country.
Jonathan Metliss
London W1
Roo the Jew
With the revelation of Wayne Rooney’s Jewish heritage, is it too late to give him immediate Israeli citizenship so he can be selected for the next Nation’s Cup return game against Ireland this weekend?
Freddie Truman, the famous England and Yorkshire fast bowler, was similarly told that he might have Jewish ancestry. He famously replied: “I don’t mind but will not be giving up me bacon butties.”
Llewellyn Gaba
Cardiff
Fordham family
I am a Dutch historian from Venray in the Netherlands and the adopter, or Sentinel of Memory, of the grave of Sapper Samuel Bernard Fordham, service number 2248679, Royal Engineers.
Samuel died on April 2, 1945 at the age of 23 and is buried here at Venray War Cemetery.
For several years I have been trying to learn more about the young man behind the name on the headstone and, if possible, to find members of his family. I visit and care for his grave and would very much like his relatives to know that, more than 80 years later and far from home, Samuel is still remembered.
My research identifies his parents as Morris and Rachel Fordham. I am now particularly trying to trace Samuel’s brothers or sisters and their descendants – nieces, nephews, great-nieces or great-nephews – rather than contacting unrelated people who merely share the surname.
If a relative recognises Samuel’s name, I would be delighted to share photographs of his grave and the historical material I have collected.
I would equally be very grateful for any family photographs, memories, letters or stories they might wish to share.
There is, of course, no pressure whatsoever. My main wish is simply to let his family know that his grave is cared for.
Bram P.M. Dirkx
The Netherlands
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