Front the Hon. Terence Prittie Sir: Anthony Nutting appears to
have missed the point of your admirable editorial 'Hypocrisy over Israel' of August 18. As I understand it, your editorial argued that it was hypocrisy to condemn Israel for taking strong action to combat terrorism, when the outside world was taking no effective action velatever. Your editorial view appears to me to be unanswerable, and to deserve every possible support. Terrorism is a menace to the perfectly peaceable citizens of countries outside the Middle East. They need and deserve protection.
The rights and wrongs of the Middle East dispute are immensely complex. The outside world should encourage a settlement of the dispute, by discussion and negotiation —this is the only way in which it will ever be settled.
He should advise his Arab friends in this sense, and not suggest — however indirectly — that terrorism against neutrals who have no connection with that dispute can ever be justified.
Terence Prittie 15 Uxbridge Street, London, W8 Sir: I have just seen Richard Reid'S letter in your August 25 edition where he compares the Israeli action in imposing a forced landing and search on an Iraqi aircraft with the hi-jacking of planes by Arab terrorists.
Surely it would be more appropriate to compare this operation with the recent incident when a Royal Naval Auxiliary vessel was forced to heave to and subsequently boarded and searched by French naval personnel. As far as I know, no-one has ventured to describe
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