Readers' letters: Israel and Saudi Arabia fell for trap set by Hamas

On 7 October it was clear the Hamas objective was to sabotage any Saudi/Israeli rapprochement. Both the Saudis and Israel immediately fell into the Hamas trap – the Saudis by suspending negotiations and Israel by its massive retaliation.

Israel should have announced in the UN that the 1,450 brutal murders and kidnappings proved how necessary the talks with the Saudis were for long-term regional peace; and called on the Saudis and other friendly neighbours to help finalise their accords, to condemn Hamas unequivocally, and to cooperate in isolating Hamas (and by extension Hezbollah and Houthis) and supporting moderate Palestine leaders.

Preferably with such wider agreement, Israel could also have cut supplies to Gaza, but promised immediate reinstatement if all the 252 kidnapped hostages were freed, alive and well, within, say, 14 days – failing which, robust military action as permitted by the UN and international law would follow.

That maybe seems naive now, but at least Israel would have retained the support and moral high ground among its traditional allies for longer than it has done in the last 24 months, and the appalling death and destruction levels might have been avoided or minimised.

John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife

Only the beginning

It was very moving to watch the opening ceremony for the new Palestinian embassy. The hoisting of the flag, accompanied by the Palestinian National Anthem, adopted from the PLO in the 1970s, was a definite goosepimple moment, but as Dr Al Qutob pointed out, so far, it’s only ink on paper (Letters, 24 September).

The UK is but one of many countries to recognise the state of Palestine and the momentum must gather pace, so that mere words are translated into real territory. It has certainly given increasingly isolated Israel food for thought.

Monday marked not the end of a process but its start. The next step, which must be in the United Nations’ hands, is to broker much needed peace, spanning Gaza and the West Bank, the future Palestinian state.

Despite the horrendous experience of the Palestinian people, described by Dr Al Qutob, it’s impressive to witness their redoubtable never-say-die spirit.

Hopefully, the ranting Donald Trump and the obnoxious Benjamin Netanyahu find themselves on the wrong side of history. It’s well past the moment for things to go the Palestinians’ way. We must all make the yards to ensure that their time has come.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Silencing Swinney

It is welcome news that Jill Stephenson (Letters, 24 September) will no longer attempt to deflect from the failings of public services across the UK, or demean Scotland’s public servants, by the selective use of statistics or by repeating shallow political sound bites.

No more drug and alcohol death comparisons while over three million children live in deep poverty, the scandalous scourge leading to the most premature deaths throughout the UK. No more focus on mistakes made in procuring innovative dual-fuel ferries while billions of pounds in the procurement of useless PPE go up in dark smoke.

Of course even if Ms Stephenson’s “Eureka” moment proves lasting, others will no doubt continue to deflect from the failures of UK foreign policy by, for example, questioning John Swinney in making comments condemning horrendous mass atrocities and in supporting moves to bring about a two-state solution as the only path to lasting peace in the Middle East.

No matter the personal difficulties we may be facing, the day our First Minister is forbidden from commenting on the extermination of another nation on this planet is the day it will be confirmed that Scotland, Europe’s oldest nation (apart from San Marino), is no longer an entity accepted by those controlling the government of the United Kingdom.

Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian

Top universities

Congratulations St Andrews University! In last Saturday’s edition you reported that in Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2026 they finish second top in the UK.

But what about other Scottish Universities? None make the top 20. Does this matter? I wonder what Edinburgh University, who have paused recruitment, is doing about this? As like many of your readers, I have an interest in this.

N Hugh Mackay, Edinburgh

Jury service

I was disappointed but entirely unsurprised to see that the changes to criminal justice in the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill do not include cutting our juries from 15 jurors down to 12.

To obtain a single 15-member jury, the court has to send out sufficient citations to get at least twice that number of people to turn up to court to form a pool from which the jury is selected.

Having raised an excessively large jury, the Scottish courts laughably call the vote of just eight of those jurors to convict “proof beyond reasonable doubt”. It is certainly a step in the right direction to increase that to ten out of 15 as the bill proposes. However, a third of the jury unconvinced still looks like “reasonable doubt”.

Of course, the only reason that the Scottish Government decided in 2009 and again in this bill not to cut the size of Scottish criminal juries is the pathological need to be different from England.

We really need mature adult politicians willing to learn from England (and other jurisdictions), where their laws and approaches are better. By the same token, the English and Welsh should consider adopting our system of selling land by missives rather than their two-stage process with contract and conveyancing.

Otto Inglis, Crossgates, Fife

Little Englander

As someone who came to Scotland from England in my teens to study and work I was dismayed with Martin Redfern’s preference for English people taking jobs in Scotland over those from the rest of the UK and abroad (Letters, 23 September).

Mr Redfern gives no evidence to back up his claim that the SNP is deliberately discriminating against workers from England to bolster their vote. If he looked at the census data he would find that a disproportionately greater number of people from the rest of the UK of retirement age come to Scotland than of working age.

This may be partly because the tax regime here penalises higher paid workers and the welfare policy is more attractive to retired people, acting as a drag on growth, as does the growing exodus of talent from Scotland. Either way this is an ideological stance from a socialist party, not a discriminatory one.

As for me, when I saw “Ceilidh” on the blackboard on my first day at secondary school here I was at as much a loss as anyone would have been from any country. There is no reason why people from many cultures can’t settle and contribute greatly here, and they do. It’s wrong to think people from England are any better at it. We are all the richer culturally by our differences. A narrow little Englander mentality to migration will get us nowhere.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Blunt instrument

I note that Scottish ministers and others are claiming that the recent welcome fall in alcohol deaths is due to minimum unit pricing (your report, 24 September).

This flies in the face of the facts. In 2018, the year MUP was introduced, the number of deaths stood at 1,136. The figure for 2024 was 1,185. So there has been an increase of more than 4 per cent in deaths since the policy came into force.

The policy was initially sold as targeting drinks such as cheap cider consumed by problem drinkers. However, now a bottle of own-brand gin costs £5.50 more in Scotland than England. It is a blunt instrument which affects moderate drinkers as a form of regressive taxation.

Robert Cairns, Cupar, Fife

Trump’s truth

The Scotsman Editorial of 24 September made no reference to the President of the Unied States saying that “I want to stop seeing them ruining that beautiful Scottish and English countryside with windmills and massive solar panels”.

What you did not address is that, if the wind does not blow, then the hundreds of billions of debt that must be repaid by Scottish energy consumers for these renewable projects produces not a single unit of energy! That results in a plethora of scrap metal desecrating rural Scotland in a vain attempt to meet an SNP net zero target.

However, what not a single MSP at Holyrood will admit is that, to keep the lights on under dunkelflaute weather conditions, the SNP is forced to rely on English gas turbines to maintain power to schools, hospitals, ATMs and supermarket freezers.

Is such an SNP energy policy one that IndyRef2 voters will support in May 2026 or was there a grain of truth in the claims made by Donald Trump on net zero targets?

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway

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