Thorpe does her cause no good by lashing out at King Charles

As a republican, I saw Lidia Thorpe’s outburst at King Charles and his wife as disgraceful. The couple are guests in our country and should be afforded welcome and respect.

Thorpe’s crass attention-seeking behaviour does nothing to advance the cause of republicanism in this country, and I would hope that no respectable pro-republican organisation would have Thorpe as a member.

George Greenberg, Malvern, Vic

The courageous visit of an unwell King Charles III and Queen Camilla reminds us of the enduring stability of our constitutional monarchy in a volatile world. But we see more than this. For example, in the Commonwealth we have the transformation of empire into a free and voluntary association of 56 highly diverse nations.

This is without precedent in history. Once a symbol of dominion, the Crown is now one of friendship and enlightened engagement with myriad projects, from homelessness to women’s health and education to the dismantling of the international illegal trade in wildlife and ecological sustainability.

I’d be happy if our political class was as dedicated to duty as the working royal family. Some say the royal visit will revive interest in Australia becoming a republic.

But the reverse seems to be the case, as Alexander Downer argued in his column on Monday, with the Australian Republic Movement beginning to look like a dated republican moment (“Republic campaign irrelevant in face of King’s popularity”, 21/10).

Lawrence Pope, Carlton North, Vic

Wrong to praise Sinwar

The fact that Yahya Sinwar was lauded as “a martyr and hero” in some quarters raises grave concerns about why our federal government gave $1.65m to the United Muslims of Australia, whose employee, Sheik Ibrahim Dadoun, spoke glowingly about Sinwar. Sinwar was a Hamas terrorist leader and mass murderer. Does UMA support Dadoun’s praise of Sinwar, or will it condemn it and dismiss Dadoun from the UMA?

Why are people who support terrorism allowed to be in Australia, and why are more people allowed into Australia from terrorist-supporting regions without at the very least rigorous checks to ensure they are not also terrorist supporters? Israel and the Jews have been unfairly demonised by many. Israel Defence Force soldiers have also faced an unparalleled task of destroying terrorist organisations embedded within residential areas. Many places were probably also booby-trapped, which is no doubt why so many properties were destroyed rather than attempts made to root out terrorists room by room. War analysts have been amazed at how well the IDF has succeeded in what many considered an impossible task.

This may have been impossible for other defence forces but not a determined IDF. Genocide is an accusation more accurately directed at some Arab/Islamic states that wiped out or expelled Jews from their lands. In contrast, Israel appealed to its Arab citizens to stay and help build Israel, resulting in many staying with full equal rights and now representing about 20 per cent of the population. There are disputes about why so many Arabs left Israel in or around 1948, but it is clear they were encouraged to leave by Arab leaders with the promise of return after the Jews were annihilated. I am confident the Arabs living peacefully today in Israel would hate to see it destroyed by neighbouring Islamic forces, led by the despised Iranian regime.

Bill Ivinson, Beaumaris, Vic

Fertility trap

Nick Cater rightly concludes that “if present trends continue, the next great extinction may be our own” (“Green anxiety a poor excuse for collapsing birthrate”, 21/10). With over 8bn of us overconsuming the resources of planet, it is unlikely, however, that dropping global fertility rates will cause our decline. Rather, as some security leaders acknowledge, it will be lack of resources, and bickering over those resources, that dwindles human numbers. Living sustainably might be a way forward.

Amy Hiller, Kew, Vic

I know from the words of my own adult children that climate change is a serious concern, and while it may not be a determining factor in their decision about procreation, it is certainly playing on their minds. In my own case, I was not even considering parenthood when the Cold War was raging in the 1980s. It was only after the Soviet Union collapsed and the world became a lot safer that my sentiment changed. Fortunately, I met someone of like mind, and soon enough we came to enjoy parenthood. Even so, I’m sure if I were young today I would have serious trepidations, given the upward trajectory of global temperatures. And herein lies the problem. If we want to get the birthrate up again, we need to convince young people their children will have a future.

Ken Enderby, Concord, NSW