Sir, - M.A. Nelligan's letter (October 14th) calling for Ireland to wield what little power it can on the UN Council in favour of the rights of small nations, such as Palestine, is to be welcomed. Such a stance would doubtlessly encounter difficulty, judging by the pro-Israeli bias in the Western media (due in no small part to American economic, strategic and electoral interest in the region). The Palestinians are stereotyped as fundamentalist terrorists, while Israel is the exemplary guardian of western civilisation.
Israel's sham war in Lebanon (in which thousands of Arab civilians and Israeli conscripts were pointlessly killed) was somewhat exposed by your paper's coverage of the collapse of the Israeli-backed militia, supposedly representative of South Lebanon. We are being misinformed that Arafat is trying to distort the peace process by orchestrating violence. The truth is that his corrupt, crony-ridden PLO is hopelessly out of touch with the Palestinian people (even Arafat was surprised by the eruption of the Intifada), who are being sold an agreement which, on the West Bank, gives them less than 5 per cent of their own territory. Arafat is obviously scared of his own people, whose determination not to substitute occupation by one police state for the indignity of another is worth of respect.
Ordinary Arabs throughout the world are visibly inspired by the Palestinian desire for justice. It flies in the face of their "respectable" regimes - such as Saudi Arabia, whose farcical relationship with the US has done nothing to elevate human rights in its own country. Even the Iraqi people, who have suffered so long from murderous sanctions and covert bombing campaigns, were told by the Reagan administration that their ruthless dictator was a friend of Western democracy during the war with Iran.
Thankfully, the Palestinian people seem intent on defying such humiliating Western expectations of them. - Yours, etc.,
R. Sweeney, Primrose Hill, Celbridge, Co Kildare.