DAN Rickman (Letters, January 2), despite his unhelpful logic-chopping, does not answer my main point, which is that whoever consistently opposes Israeli Government policies on Palestine and the Palestinians and their UN-proclaimed right to a sovereign land of their own free of all Israeli interference is frequently decried by Zionists as an anti-Semite.
The letter of Dr Ken Collins, who signs himself as a highly responsible leader of Glasgow Jewry, is a typical example in which critics are explicitly assimilated with the Nazis. Such moral blackmail was once famously rejected by Bernard Levin in his Daily Mail column.
This absolute Palestinian right is opposed by most Zionists, whichever Israeli party, group, or camp they belong to, so Mr Rickman's democratic Israel is a very one-sided democracy indeed on the Palestinian situation, brought about by Zionist obduracy and evident expansionism.
On this key question Mr Rickman's own views are vague and general. He says he ''hope[s] for peace and an end to injustice and violence in the region''. I agree with him but he does not say how this might be achieved.
Since he thinks me muddle-headed I will set down as clearly as I can my own suggestions.
First, Israel should withdraw from all the illegal settlements in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan, and cease attempting to take over East Jerusalem.
Secondly, she should end the illegal occupation of a strip of south Lebanon and cease building roads that turn Palestinian territory into a series of reservations.
Thirdly, she should submit for inspection all her weapons of mass destruction.
Finally, she should implement in full all the UN resolutions she has defied over the years, which could eventually involve moving back to the dividing line between Israel and Palestine the UN established in 1948.
This may seem like a pipedream in view of the impunity with which Israel has flouted international law by bombings and attacks on countries with which she is not at war. There is, however, a straightforward solution to the problem. Israel can only act in this way because of massive US financial and military support.
The world must let America know that the Middle East situation is intolerable, and the UN should impose the same sanctions on Israel as on Iraq.
I suggest this action would quickly solve the Middle East problem, and Israel could then settle down to peaceful and fruitful relations with all her Arab neighbours. There is clearly no future at all for her in pursuing her present policies.
Andrew Lockhart Walker,
7 Lovers' Loan, Dollar.
January 3.
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