Sir: Your article (27 January) 'Is- rael and the olive
branch' seems unreasonably and unrealistically biased against Israel. You write of the Israel government's response to President Sadat's 'new diplo- macy' as being 'characteristically churlish and suspicious'. Yet only tviro months ago Sadat said 'Never, never, never' to having diplomatic relations with Israel. He has told one story about a peace settlement to an American weekly, and an- other to his own people—accord- ing to you 'a sensible precaution'. But if Egypt genuinely wants peace, why should the Egyptian people not be told? If they do not want peace it is indeed a sensible precaution for Israel to be suspicious.
It would be interesting to know what evidence there is (other than wishful thinking) that Egypt is in any way 'prepared ... to undertake direct negotiations directed at a peace settlement'. This is exactly what Israel has been offering, with- out success, since the 1967 war.
You go on to quote the myth that Israel created the refugees. The fact is that hundreds of thousands of Arabs live in Israel and in the oc- cupied territories not, as you imply, in a state of racial and religious persecution, but with greater civil and economic freedom than they ever had under Arab rule. Most of the refugees were self-created and have been callously used by the Arabs (Hussein excepted) as politi- cal pawns ever since, You reverse the facts even more absurdly in suggesting that young Israelis might not support their present regime. They may have no direct experience of persecu- tion', but even the very young have direct experience of brothers being killed in 1967 and the 'war of attri- tion', not to mention comrades be- ing massacred in school buses and rocketed in the frontier kibbutzim.
The continuing experience of people of virtually all ages in Is- rael of living under siege since 1947 Is that they have a fundamental need for security and for peace. But the two must be equated. The Israelis cannot be expected to give up security (in the form of terri- tory) purely on the words of an Egyptian leader who appears to be Unsure of the backing of his own People and who, even as he talks of peace, threatens to start war again on 7 March. It is surely time to preach sense to the Egyptians rather than the Israelis.
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