Sir, - D. Sowby (August 20th) sees fit to lecture The Irish Times on publishing an article by Edward Said (August 8th) which, in combination with the Krokodil cartoon, he/she deems "journalistic propaganda". Further, he/she suggests that it is "mendacious" to argue that Israelis are "systematically" stealing the Palestinians' homeland. The Palestinians, D. Sowby argues, could still be "occupying Judea and Samaria" had not Jordan foolishly joined the "Arab attack on Israel" in 1967.
D. Sowby is in no position to lay such charges. Firstly, there was no "Arab attack on Israel" in 1967. Even the most devoted Zionist would concede that Israel attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan first, by pre-emptively destroying their air forces on the ground. Further, a raft of modern Israeli and Jewish scholars, such as Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe, Avi Shlaim, Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein, agree with differing degrees of emphasis that the Israeli attack on the Arab armies was unnecessary. The Central Intelligence Agency had informed the Israeli government in May 1967 that the Israeli forces would have no difficulty in beating off attacks by any or all of the Arab armies in a week. Yitzhak Rabin, then the Israeli chief-of-staff, wrote as much in his memoirs. Significantly, the fact that Sowby refers to the Occupied West Bank as "Judea and Samaria" suggests that he/she is an adherent of the Revisionist Zionist/Jabotinsky world view, in which the Territories, south Lebanon and even Jordan all constitute parts of the desired Eretz Israel. Secondly, the Palestinians were not "occupying" the West Bank. They lived there, and had been living there for a very long time. In fact, between the end of the 1948 War and the 1967 War, it was Jordan that was in occupation of the West Bank, and Egypt that was in occupation of the Gaza Strip.
Thirdly, D. Sowby refers disingenuously to the Palestinian leadership as "people who have got out". While conceding that the leadership of the PLO is dangerously corrupt and authoritarian, only the wilfully blind could ignore the series of wars and disasters that have befallen the Palestinians and created a leadership cadre that has been long in exile - most obviously, the 1948 War, the 1967 War and the 1982 Lebanon War.
Fourthly, on the issue of house demolitions, the Palestinian homes that are bulldozed by the Israelis are not simply houses that have been built "illegally, without planning permission". It is well known that the Israeli authorities bulldoze the homes of militant Palestinians as a mode of punishment. In fact, Israeli settlers have a history of initiating settlement development without planning permission, and their homes have not been destroyed by the state. Fifthly, it is difficult to understand Sowby's reference to "Israel's difficulties in negotiating with Palestinians". Even the pro-Israeli Clinton administration is clearly exasperated by the refusal of the Netanyahu government to hand over 13 per cent more of the Territories to the Palestinian National Authority. And the Israeli government has just announced plans for the construction of 2,000 new settlers' homes and tourist units on the Golan Heights, presumably with a view to advancing peace negotiations with the Syrians.
The publication of Edward Said's tragic article is to be welcomed. It provides a necessary corrective to the at best naive, at worst blatantly pro-Israeli view of the "peace process" that we tend to receive. - Yours, etc.,
Conor MacCarthy,
De Vesci Court,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.