3 APRIL 2004, Page 29

Fear itself

From Patrick Carden Sir: Following the Spanish bomb outrage, which had not occurred at the time of the writing/publication of Simon Jenkins's 13 March cover story on Mr Blair's recent speech, and Rod Liddle's interesting piece on scare tactics in the same issue, these were still very important reminders that we do have only fear itself to fear. It is perhaps significant to compare the situation here in Israel, with six million people targeted by 100 million people dedicated to kill every Jewish man, woman and child (if one believes the Arab media). Thus, if we follow the example of our Western democratic politicians, given that Britain has a population of near 60 million and the US of about 280 million, we in Israel should be living in fortified cellars and only venture out in tanks. We don't. May I mangle another quotation — 'hyperbole makes cowards of us all'?

Patrick Corden Not Tavor, Israel