Taking a view on Israel 1

David Hirsh has a remarkable ability to play fast and loose with the facts (Opinion, July 28). Or maybe he has been listening to too much Israeli propaganda. Wherever did he get the idea that Hezbollah is a "foreign militia that occupies Lebanon"? Hezbollah is a direct consequence of the murderous Israeli invasion of 1982.

Hirsh is wrong to say that there is no peace movement in Britain capable of uniting Arabs, Jews, Muslims and other Britons. That is the precise purpose of groups such as the Stop the War Coalition. As a Jewish anti-Zionist, I shall happily take part in its march to demand the cessation of Israel's bombings.

The idea that Hezbollah and Hamas pose an "existential threat" to Israel is part of the ludicrous siege mentality of Zionism. There was a time when Jews posed a similar "existential" threat to the dreams of a Greater Reich.

Nightmares born of expansionism and ethnic cleansing are no basis for a peace movement.

As long as Israel is armed and equipped to the teeth by the US so that it can intimidate and bomb its neighbours while denying the Palestinians their most elementary rights, there will be resistance. If Hirsh is serious about peace, he should support a boycott of Israel until it agrees to withdraw unconditionally from all the territories it has occupied.

Tony Greenstein
Brighton