Media And The Middle East

Sir, - David Horovitz sneers justifiably at Yasser Arafat's "tame media" (The Irish Times, August 2nd), yet our own media have…

Sir, - David Horovitz sneers justifiably at Yasser Arafat's "tame media" (The Irish Times, August 2nd), yet our own media have shown little sign of independent thinking in their coverage of the recent Camp David "negotiations"; we have been presented almost exclusively with the Israeli/US standpoint.

Let us not forget that Israel is an illegal occupier of Palestinian territories on which it has illegally built massive settlements defended with brutal military might. Typically, Mr Horovitz's article never once adverts to these awkward facts, but reiterates the conventional stereotype of patient Israeli and US negotiators thwarted by "obdurate" and "intransigent" Arabs, who stubbornly insist on the continued relevance of a few paltry UN resolutions to which the rest of the world still pays lip service. - Yours, etc.,

Raymond Deane, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.