Madame Vice President, I know you want to appear “strong” and “tough” so that, especially as a woman, you do not appear to be “weak.” But being strong is not the same as being macho! Being strong is also about inner strength — knowing what is right, speaking out for what is right, and doing what is right. It is not being strong to talk about having “the most lethal fighting force in the world.” What is strong is having the strength and the courage to say that the challenges we face in the world today cannot be defeated by military might but can only be overcome by working together with other countries and finding peaceful ways to sort out our differences.

It is not being strong to say that “Hamas must be eliminated.” What is strong is having the strength and the courage to say that no amount of killing and destruction can ever extinguish the determination of a people to be free, and that the only way to defend Israel from its enemies is to turn those enemies into friends, by ensuring a fair and equitable settlement for the Palestinians, once and for all.

Please, madame vice president, we need a president who is not afraid to say these things and to act on them. We need a president who stands up to bullies and machismo, not by parroting their same logic, but by turning it on its head. Strength is not having the biggest guns. Strength is knowing that the more people you kill, the more you seed the determination of the next generation to fight back. Strength is about knowing how to break out of those cycles of violence and not just endlessly falling into them. Please think carefully about how you approach these issues. It may well determine, not just whether you win the election, but whether the world survives the next few years of global turmoil.

Timmon Wallis

Northampton