Madam, - Reading Raymond Deane's letter of February 25th reminded me of a conversation I had with my son-in-law, a newspaper editor at that time. I told him how much I enjoyed Kevin Myers's articles in your newspaper and he retorted that the reason that I enjoyed Mr Myers's writing was because his views coincided with my own.
Raymond Deane considers that if he quotes Jewish critics of Israel, that clinches his arguments. I must inform Mr Deane that if you get two Jews to agree on anything that is unusual and if you get three Jews to agree on anything that is a miracle. Judaism is not a hierarchical religion and argument is the order of the day.
The story goes that when the first president of Israel visited Harry Truman in the White House, Truman complained of the enormous task of being president of 250 million people - to which the Israeli president retorted: "I am the president of two million presidents".
I do not think I am guilty of overstatement when I say Mr Deane is a demoniser of Israel. Admittedly, he seems to like Jews who express views that he supports. Prof Benny Morris was on his preferred list as long as he thought that his views coincided with his own but, alas, the professor has now been struck off.
The subject under discussion by Mr Deane and his fellow-travellers at the moment is the apportionment of blame for the creation of Palestinian refugees. Of course Mr Deane et al accuse Israel of a deliberate attempt to ethnically cleanse the area, and - surprise, surprise - they will find a Jew who agrees with them. Let me play the same game and quote Muslim Arabs and who blame their fellow Muslim Arabs as the creators of the Palestinian refugee problem.
From the official journal of the PLO, author Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas): "The Arab states succeeded in scattering the Palestinian people and in destroying their unity. They did not recognise them as a unified people until the states of the world did so and this is regrettable".
In listing the reasons for the Arab failure in 1948, Khaled el-Azm, Syrian Prime Minister noted: "It is we who have demanded the return of the refugees while it is we who have who made them leave. We brought disaster upon a million Arab refugees by inviting them and bringing pressure on them to leave. We have accustomed them to begging and we have participated in lowering their morale and social level. Then we exploited them in executing crimes of murder, arson and throwing stones upon men women and children. . .all this in the name of political purposes."
I could quote many other examples of similar views in direct contrast to the views of Mr Deane and his friends. Unfortunately, our arguments do nothing to solve the unnecessary suffering of the people caught up in this conflict, on both sides.
One thing I do know is that, given half a chance, the Israelis would be delighted to co-operate in every way to help their neighbours to "to make the desert bloom", as they have done. - Yours, etc,
M. ROSS, Templeogue Road, Dublin 6.