The signatories to the letter do not mention that not one single Bundist was ever elected to the Sejm, the Polish parliament during the inter-war years. The Zionists and the ultra-orthodox were far more successful. In 1939 the Bund depended on an electoral arrangement with the Polish Socialist party for its municipal election gains. Those … Read more
“The mark of an arrogant nation that has overreached itself” sounds more like an irritated imperial satrap of a bygone era than a reasoned Guardian editorial about the Mossad (24 March). Why nation and not government? Everybody? Does this include the Israeli peace camp, as well as those Israelis who held doctored British passports? Since … Read more
Sir, The Jews emerged as an ethnic group in the area known as the Pale of Settlement in eastern Europe in the 18th century. Many considered themselves to be part of a people with a culture, history, literature, languages and a religion. Zionism and other solutions to the Jewish question emerged out of the advent … Read more
The Amnesty report (Suspend military aid to Israel, Amnesty urges, 23 February) goes into great detail about the US and European sources of arms to Israel. Its research into arms supplies to Hamas is, by contrast, brief and sketchy. It says therefore that such weaponry has been acquired from “clandestine sources”. Israel’s suppliers are clearly … Read more
In distancing Iran from the Arab Peace Initiative, Gholamhossein Mahmoudi (Letters, November 28) is correct in pointing out that his country has never recognised “the illegitimate and fabricated Israeli regime” since the Islamic revolution in 1979.However, he seems to forget that it was Israel’s clandestine supply of arms to Iran at the onset of the … Read more
Anne Karpf is right to attack the equating of Palestinians with Nazis by rightwing authors, using the sojourn of the Mufti of Jerusalem in wartime Berlin (Islamofascist slanders, November 4). However, it is simplistic to gloss over the alignment of the mainstream Palestinian Arab national movement with Germany which argued from the standpoint of “the … Read more
Mousa Abu Marzook’s positive comment that Hamas welcomes dialogue seems to apply only to external political figures and journalists, not the Israeli peace camp (Comment, August 16). This is in contrast to the PLO, which assiduously cultivated first non-Zionist, then Zionist adherents of the Israeli left. A year ago Gush Shalom predicted an imminent meeting … Read more
Ahdaf Soueif (Comment, November 17) simplistically depicts the Israeli right as “Zionists” and the peace camp as merely “Israelis”. Yet the Peace Now movement does not disavow Zionism. Neither does the architect of the Oslo and Geneva accords, Yossi Beilin. Neither do members of Courage to Refuse, who reject military service in the West Bank … Read more
Why didn’t George Galloway (Comment, August 31) notice the absence of air raid shelters in Lebanon? Why did Iran and Syria spend tens of millions of dollars on sophisticated weaponry for Hizbullah, yet not spend a penny to protect Lebanese civilians against the Israeli air force? Why is Hizbullah now offering $12,000 compensation for each … Read more
Timothy Garton Ash is right to promote the cause of liberal democracy in the Middle East, but although Hizbullah has embraced parliamentary politics, it simultaneously continued the armed struggle (A little democracy is a dangerous thing – so let’s have more of it, August 3). In contrast, the Irgun transformed itself into an Israeli political … Read more