Sir, – Which words in the following sentences are unclear to your Editorial writer (October 19th)? “I turn to you, our Palestinian neighbours, led by the Palestinian Authority, and I say: Let’s begin negotiations immediately without preconditions” (Prime Minister Netanyahu at Bar-Ilan University, June 14th, 2009). “President Abbas, why don’t you join me? We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations. Let’s just get on with it. Let’s negotiate peace” (Prime Minister Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly, September 23rd, 2011).
How do these statements sit with your writer’s assertion that my government is “in no mood yet” for peace talks? If peace talks have not yet resumed, it is only because of the ongoing refusal of the Palestinian Authority to engage with us.
One unfounded charge is followed by another. Apparently, the prime minister is guilty of “inaction” on the economy. This in a country that was only lightly touched by the world recession and was the first to emerge from it, whose economy enjoyed growth of 4.5 per cent in 2010 (OECD average 2.7 per cent) and is projected to grow at almost 5 per cent this year. Israel was and is today one of the most dynamic and innovative economies in the world.
Finally, your writer’s use of quotation marks for the word “terrorist” indicates a difficulty with the use of the term. What other word can be suggested to describe, to take two examples, a man who grabs the steering wheel of a crowded bus, driving it into a ravine and killing 16 passengers, or another who sends a suicide “martyr” to blow himself up in a busy cafe, taking the lives of 11 civilians and wounding many others? – Yours, etc,