The Editor, Sir:

In a reasoned review of the George Soros article, John Rapley could have used the subset title 'Israel is not alone'. Many communities and countries and countries are themselves "committing suicide out of the fear of death". What is this all about?

When one sits in the relative peace of an island nation, with the threat being only from our own people, the perspective is totally different to one sitting a few feet away from a border with people across the fence planning to destroy your right to exist - to kill you, and for what!? The answers to the question what, the answers to the question why, even sometimes who, are not simple, neither is the answer to the question on how to do defend oneself.

Rapley rightly identifies the argument by Soros that worsening conditions in Palestine have strengthened the hands of he radicals. Neither he nor Soros says what could be done about it. Israel has long argued that "one hand can't clap". If there is no leadership on the other side, you are in a Catch-22 situation, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Two scenarios

There are two scenarios being played out - one is the economic disaster that the Palestinians have to a large extent brought upon themselves. This is now being offset by the largest per capita aid being donated by the Europeans and some Middle Eastern countries. The question is: Where has the money gone? Where is the development? Where is the use of the greenhouse in Gaza, the skills learnt in working in Israel, where is the future, the vision and the reality? Is it all being consumed in hate?

The other is ideology, the fanaticism, the extremism, the inhumanity that these engender, in the adult and now in the schools with the children. If there is no love for oneself, no love for one's own, how can there be respect for the enemy? Without these values and morals, there can be no peace.

This is true whether you are a Jewish Israeli in Ashkelon, a Christian in Bethlehem, a Bahai in Iran and to go farther afield, a Sunni in the Shia parts of Iraq, a Serb in Bosnia and even worse, the refugees from Darfur, and on and on and on. The sieges are worldwide, the challenges are enormous, the bunker mentality is overpowering. Hunkering down for survival is yes, self-defeating, but what are these people to do?

Lastly, Rapley made a few unfortunate comments that need correcting. There are literally no Jews left in the Muslim world, as nearly one million were expelled when the five Arab countries lost the 1948 war. Israel's demographic future does not feature in the siege mentality and the numbers of its population are not a major element of any deterrent given, in particular, the hundreds of millions across their borders. The Yiddish culture has all but disappeared. It was killed with the six million in the Holocaust, and so it is not an issue that is seen as weakening world Jewry. In fact, the return of the Anusim is strengthening it.

I am, etc.,

AINSLEY HENRIQUES

Honorary Consul

Consulate of Israel

58 Paddington Terrace

Kingston 6