Sir, — Lest any confusion arise from Eamonn McCann’s latest column on Israel, his fifth in six months (“US business support for Israel serves wider agendas”, April 10th) it should be stated that Israel has always regarded the term “disputed territories” as more accurate than the tendentious “occupied territories” when referring to the historic heartland of the Jewish nation, Judea and Samaria (also known inaccurately as “the West Bank”).
The use of “disputed” conveys Israel’s acceptance that two peoples, not one, have just claims on this territory. Israel’s motive in entering the current peace talks, as with the (rejected) offers it made to the Palestinians in three previous rounds of failed peace talks since 2000, was to reach a reality of “two states for two peoples” living side by side in a lasting peace. Sadly, it seems that the refusal of one side to recognise Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people may have dealt a killer blow to the present talks.
It seems that when accounting for American support for Israel, Mr McCann cannot resist the temptation to resort to well-worn stereotypes of Jewish finance controlling US foreign policy. The terminology has been adjusted slightly, but the classic tropes are there: Governor Christie “kowtowed to Zionism”, servile Republican hopefuls “paraded their wares” for the all-powerful Zionist mogul’s inspection. Yet Mr McCann allows a glimpse of the truth in his last line when he tacitly admits the existence of spontaneous mass pro-Israel sentiment among the US public. Truly, in the venting of unhealthy obsessions, a “very useful issue for some,” to quote Mr McCann, “is Israel”. Yours, etc,
DERMOT MELEADY,
Information Officer,
Embassy of Israel,
Dublin 4