Calls for a ceasefire and end to arming Israel

Sir, Matthew Parris is of course right that the optics of Israel’s military action are hugely disturbing (comment, Apr 6) but sadly the truth of this and many other wars in the past is that optics must taken second place to the reality of why the war is being fought in the first place. Parris argues that Israel’s response to the barbaric attack of October 7 should have been to pause, pause and calculate. But what then? Allow Hamas to keep its hostages and probably kill them all? Negotiate with a terrorist group bent on Israel’s destruction and which has vowed to repeat the events of October 7?

The destruction of Hamas is an imperative, not just for Israel, but for the civilised world. Anything