The Editor
The Herald
Glasgow

17th July 2006

Dear Editor

In the last couple of days, a lot of hype and tripe from the Jewish lobby has passed through these columns. The reality however remains that it was the Jews, or to be precise the Zionists Jews, who introduced terrorism in the Middle East in the 1940s. It was their terrorist organisations like Stern gang and Irgun headed by people like Menachin Begun and of that ilk who massacred and terrorised the Palestinians to force them out of their land. This terrorism has continued unabated in Palestine though its nature has changed in the sense that once the State of Israel was established it was taken over by Jewish State to humiliate, oppress and terrorise those Palestinians who some how had managed to remain in Israel and also those living in the titbits of land of Palestine left for the them. Thus, Israel now is a blatantly shameless apartheid State.

Terrorism begets terrorism and terrorism generates more terrorism. True to this adage, the Palestinians, having lost hope of any justice from the world and the UNO affecting their human rights and their return to their homes, began to respond to the Israeli terrorism in the same terms. Until then Arabs had always treated Jews with due regard and respect. From the middle of the seventh century to the middle of the twentieth, they always found refuge and safe havens in Muslim lands against persecution and executions in other parts of the world. Even now after all their atrocities ad injustices the Arabs, their neighbours want to live in peace with them if only they would conform to the UN resolutions and go back to their pre 1967 boundaries.

The Jordanians and Egyptians have already recognised the State of Israel and the Saudis, the most conservative State in the Muslim world, is on record in declaring that they would also recognise Israel if Israelis were to go back to the pre 1967 borders. Once Saudi Arabia recognises Israel, it is certain that every other Muslim nation in the world would recognise it and there would be peace and prosperity for Israel and its neighbours. Yassar Arafat and even the present democratically elected Hamas government have repeatedly said the same thing. However, it appears that Israel and perhaps also its patron and protector US, for its stakes in the Middle East, does not desire peace. The Israelis on their part, true to their traditional greed, are always looking for more and never willing to give up some thing easily. That is the major obstacle to the Middle East problem.

During a visit to Palestine, a couple years ago, the Mayor of Bethlehem, a Palestinian Christian, hosted a reception for our group. In his welcoming speech, he said �the Israelis talk of peace, but they do not mean peace they mean piece, and they are always usurping Palestinian land piece by piece�. This in a nutshell is the problem with the Israelis. They want peace or to be correct they want to give peace to their neighbours on their own terms and that is not acceptable and will never be.

Their present disgraceful destruction of Palestinian and Lebanese infrastructure and barbaric massacres of civilian is going to generate more terrorism. Yes, they had a grievance, but they should remember that Palestinians have far more grievances of abductions and murders against them. To address their grievance they should have behaved in a civilised way. There savage response is going to radicalise more young men the world over and regrettably produce more diehards and suicide bombers. That would result in more murders of innocent Israelis and others. Israel has tried terrorism for the last sixty years, it has not worked, and it is not going to work in the future. It was time Israel realised this glaring reality and implemented the UN resolutions to solve the problems with its neighbours in a civilised way. Only that would bring honourable and lasting peace to the Middle East.

Yours sincerely

Bashir Maan