24 AUGUST 1956, Page 13

SIR,—The Spectator apparently can see beyond its nose but not

under it. It is true that Egypt's political behaviour is to a considerable extent motivated by pathological hatreds. But is Egypt the only country where irrational forces dictate decisions of state? The Spectator complains that nobody in high places takes the obvious and sensible course of an alliance with the one democratic, stable and militarily effective power in the Middle East, Israel. Is not the reason for this curious failure to some great degree the persistence among the great and/or influential of anti- semitism, both in this country and in the United States?—Yours faithfully,

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