Munich
From Mrs Elisabeth Cussons
Sir: Now that one has calmed down from the shock of the Munich tragedy and the stock market is back to normal after its two-day depression, it is tempting to ask some questions.
The press, the media and what is described as the civilised world have expressed loud sympathy in favour of Israel and her innocent victims. Never have I seen such mourning as that of the Olympic public and competitors when they all stood up in respect for the eleven dead Israelis.
But did we see such sorrow when 200 Mexican students were gunned down in Mexico '68? Do we see such mourning when some innocent person in Belfast is massacred? When it happens in Vietnam and, last but not least, did we see such grief and did we play Beethoven's Eroica, when half a million Palestinians were thrown out of their country, labelled stateless, to spend the rest of their lives in concentration, sorry, refugee camps to make way for Israel and the Israelites? Could it be that the so-called civilised world was getting tired of the Jews complaining how badly they had been treated all through history and about the six million murdered by Hitler, and to ease their conscience they decided (without asking the Palestinians of course) to give them a country of their own?
Could it be this bad conscience that makes us so overpoweringly emotional and one-sided? Israel led by Golda Meir still lives by the law of the Old Testament: an eye for an eye . . . How else can we explain away that Israel refused to co-operate and so let none of her people die in the airport massacre? Amnesty International's report on Arabs' treatment in Israeli prisons is interesting reading incidentally, and reveals torture methods equal to that of Nazi Germany.
I will not make excuses for Black September but there is nothing else they can do. Over twenty years of waiting has proved that. And if someone came and turned me out of my house, labelled me homeless because they considered themselves more in need of my home than I who own it was, I would in the end resort to a gun to get it back. I would have nothing more to lose except my life. These people pay with their lives for their land and people, just like our parents did during the last war. My country Norway was occupied for five years by the Germans and thanks to brave young men who shot, killed and sabotaged we got our country back.
Black September has to use these ' unorthodox ' methods because they have no jet fighters or tanks or an army of any size; no chance in an outright war. They kill innocent people, but innocent people are killed in all wars. They fight for their rights in a war that will go on until Israel makes a compromise and settles her debts with the Arabs.
Elisabeth Cussons Eery Farm, Glen Maye, Isle of Man
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