Sacrifice and risk
Sir: May I congratulate you on Hugh Fraser MP's excellent article 'The challenge of Camp David' (14 October). Mr Fraser came to the conclusion that the unprecedented assaults of the press and media on Prime Minister Begin must be closely connected with the fact that for some people the. difference between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism is 'wafer-thin'. This would also appear to be the reason why no apologies were ever made for the vile attacks against Begin and Israel under the Pretext of 'inflexibility', 'intransigence, intractability', etc and also why there is no acknowledgment of the great sacrifice and risk which Israel has accepted by handing back all the Sinai peninsula to Egypt. BY this act Israel has entrusted her security to a great extent to Egyptian goodwill in spite of adverse historical experience. Israel, by dour g so (at Egyptian insistence), went far beyond the demands of resolution 242 Which envisaged withdrawal only to 'secure, borders. The same prejudice, as so lucidly expounded by Mr Fraser, is responsible for the blindness of many Western opinionmakers (and even politicians for that matter) to the fact that a stable and secure Israel Is of paramount importance to the West not only because she is the only democracy in the Middle East but also because she is the Only reliable, and above all far the strongest, barrier to Russian penetration of that area so vital to the West. Paul Lax 20, Park Hill Iliad, Shortlands, Kent
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