Deir Yassin
Sir: A disagreement seems to have arisen between David M. Jacobs and Susannah Greenberg in their attempts to defend Menahem Begin. Mr Jacobs wants us to distrust Arab writings on the massacre, Whereas Mrs Greenberg is prepared to quote them if she thinks they suit her case. htrther, Mr Jacobs denies that Begin would have approved the massacre, while Mrs Greenberg apparently justifies it by reference to the concentration camps. I think my own solution of relying entirely on Israeli-Jewish sources remains the best. The most reliable witness is still Colonel Meir Pa'el, an Israeli army officer who, unlike your correspondents, was present at Deir Yassin, and who, unlike hlenahem Begin, has no personal responsibility to evade.
Through him, we know that Deir Yassin was not 'a strategic vantage point', as Mrs Greenberg states, At the military briefing before the attack, the army commander told the leaders of the Irgun and Stern gangs that peir Yassin was 'a quiet village' that did not constitute a security obstacle', (Yediot Ahronot, 4 April 1972). The same source contradicts the claim that the villagers were killed during the fighting. Instead men,
women and children were shot by Irgun and Stern gunmen after the ceasefire, despite Colonel Pa'el's intervention. As for Begin's claim that women were shot because some Iraqi soldiers had disguised themselves in women's clothes, that, as a justification for the murder of 254 civilians, could fittingly be described as "Goebbels-like".
We are left with Menahem Begin, the hero not only of Deir Yassin but of the explosion at the King David Hotel (in which around 100 Britons, Arabs and Jews died); and also the fearless executioner of Sgt Martin and Sgt Paice — two unarmed fellow citizens of Mr Jacobs and Mrs Greenberg, who were taken from a holiday beach in July 1947 and hanged in an orange grove. The interesting thing is that this man, whose name was reviled by the political establishment of Israel for thirty years, is now the Prime Minister. Perhaps it is fortunate for Mr Begin, considering his record, that the only state in the world which claims the right to kidnap old war criminals from out of the jurisdiction, and execute them, is Israel. Patrick Mamham 34 Greek Street, London W.1.
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