Sir: Patrick Desmond's thoughtless article, ' 'The propaganda of the
deed' (14 August) does not vindicate Simon Courtauld's argu- Ment in the same issue that `to criticise Mr Begin's Israel is not to be anti-semitic'. On the contrary, the substance of Mr Desmond's criticism suggests that in the Spectator the distinction between objective criticism and anti-semitism is not taken very seriously.
Mr Begin's role in the creation of Israel may not have been any more honourable than Martin Britain's own — the recent work of Martin Gilbert does not support this view- , Minister this hardly justified labelling the Prime Minister and the mere 76 (or is it 80?) per cent of the population who support his Policies as 'terrorists'.
Mr Desmond does not appear to possess sufficient insight to grasp fundamental Principles of political science. Terrorism is Partly the creation of political and social in- justices, but it is naive to assume that the elimination of these injustices will make ter- rorism vanish. Terrorists oppose all Political solutions and aim to destroy the Polls itself. By this definition Israel is no terrorist state. Its willingness to return land MI its borders to an untrustworthy neighbour and to participate in a 'peace' Plan that demands extraordinary sacrifice and offers no guarantee of security in return, demonstrates a tolerance and good- will that would be considered exceptional if
practised by any other nation. It is customary to judge Israel by double stan- dards and Mr Desmond makes no effort to break with this tradition.
The true terrorists are the PLO, who op- pose all political solutions to the Palestinian problem and demand 'the eradication of the Zionist entity' in their covenant. English commentators glibly refer to this as a 'negotiating position', and twist themselves into knots trying to legitimise it. Meanwhile the PLO demonstrates its con- tempt for all forms of discourse and with the help of Arab money, trains (among others) the IRA and Red Brigades in the grisly art of terrorist persuasion.
Judging from the response of the English press (sadly, the Spectator is no exception) to what it calls the Israeli 'invasion' of Lebanon, it seems safe to conclude that the propaganda of the PLO's deeds has been successful politically. This fact illustrates Dostoievsky's theme in The Possessed that murderers disguised as liberators are the off- spring of fools disguised as intellectuals. David R. Sorensen
69 Cecile Park, Crouch End, London N8
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